THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



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By permission "I The Outluuk 



Theodore Roosevelt 

From a drawing by George T. Tobin 



THEODORE 
ROOSEVELT 

The BOY and the MAN 

BY 

JAMES MORGAN 



"THE CHILD IS FATHER OF THE MAN" 



NEW YORK 
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

LONDON : THE MACMILLAN CO., Ltd. 

MCMVII 

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 



■A 



LUnARY of CONGRESS 
I wo Cooles Received 
SFF 24 «90f 

Cooyrtfht Entry 

5ej> 2Q r9'7 

CUSfS A XXc, No. 

/ 87773 

COPY B. 






Copyright, 1907, 
Bv THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. 



Set up and electrotyped. Published September, 1907. 



Nor -wood Press 

J. S. Cusbing Co. — Berwick & Smith Co. 

Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 



TO H. M. 



A FOREWORD 



"Theodore Roosevelt, the Boy and the Man," 

does not pretend to be an analysis of the individual, 
and it was not written with the intention of advo- 
cating or criticising his political policies. It was 
meant to be a simple, straightforward, yet complete 
biography of the most interesting personality of our 
day. Its aim is to present a life of action by por- 
traying the varied dramatic scenes in the career of a 
Man who still has the enthusiasm of a Boy, and 
whose energy and faith have illustrated before the 
world the spirit of Young America. 



A FOREWORD 



"Theodore Roosevelt, the Boy and the Man," 
does not pretend to be an analysis of the individual, 
and it was not written with the intention of advo- 
cating or criticising his political policies. It was 
meant to be a simple, straightforward, yet complete 
biography of the most interesting personality of our 
day. Its aim is to present a life of action by por- 
traying the varied dramatic scenes in the career of a 
Man who still has the enthusiasm of a Boy, and 
whose energy and faith have illustrated before the 
world the spirit of Young America. 



CONTENTS 



I. A Son of the North and the South 

II. Boyhood Battles . 

III. College Days 

IV. Choosing a Career 
V. In Politics . 

VI. In the Wild West . 

VII. As a Ranchman 

VIII. Life on the Plains . 

IX. Reenters Politics . 

X. At the Head of the New York Police 

XI. Getting Ready for War . 

XII. Organizing the Rough Riders 

XIII. The First Battle . 

XIV. In the Battle of San Juan 
XV. The Home-coming 

XVI. Governor and Vice-President 

XVII. Called to the Presidency . 

XVIII. Grasping the Reins 

XIX. The New President and the People 



PAGE 

I 

13 
21 

31 
42 

52 
6l 
69 

79 
89 
104 
114 
124 
135 
H3 
151 
164 
171 
178 



CONTENTS 


CHAPTER 

XX. 


As a Politician . 






PAGE 
I8 7 


XXI. 


"The Square Deal" . 






204 


XXII. 


<< The Big Stick " 






2l6 


XXIII. 


" The Strenuous Life " 






225 


XXIV. 


The President at Work 






239 


XXV. 


Life in the White House 






256 


XXVI. 


Life at Oyster Bay 






269 


XXVII. 


The President and his Children 






277 


XXVIII. 


As a Sportsman . 






2 93 


XXIX. 


A World Figure . 






310 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



Theodore Roosevelt, from a drawing by George T. Tobin 

Frontispiece ^ 



Theodore Roosevelt ..... 

Mr. Roosevelt as a Hunter .... 

Theodore Roosevelt ..... 

Mr. Roosevelt as Assistant Secretary of the Navy 

Lieutenant-Colonel Roosevelt of the Rough Riders 

Colonel Roosevelt ..... 

Colonel Roosevelt at Montauk Point 

" He's good enough for me! " .... 

One of President Roosevelt's Pastimes 

Inauguration of President Roosevelt, March 4, 1905 . 

President Roosevelt and the Russo-Japanese Peace Envoys 

President Roosevelt in the Saddle .... 

The President's Desk in the Executive Buildings at Wash 

ington 
The Remodelled White House 
Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt 
The Main Corridor of the White House 
A Favorite Cartoon 



FACING PAGE 
36 



78 
IO4 
114 

!34 
146 

178 

192 

202 

222 

228 

238 
256 
260 
264 
268 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



Sagamore Hill, Oyster Bay . 

The Library at Sagamore Hill 

Mr. and Mrs. Roosevelt and their Children 

The Southern Side of the White House . 

President Roosevelt in the Rockies . 

President Roosevelt on a Bear Hunt 

President Roosevelt To-day . 



FACING PAGE 
272 

274 

280 

29O 

296 

304 
314 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



CHAPTER I 

A SON OF THE NORTH AND THE SOUTH 



October 27, 1858, Theodore Roosevelt born. — Descended from 
one of the oldest Knickerbocker families of New York and 
from a noted Southern family. — Deep shadow cast upon his 
childhood home by the Civil War. — His father's noble work 
for the boys in blue. — His mother's Confederate brothers, 
one building the Alabama and other Southern cruisers, and 
another firing the last shot in the great battle with the Kear- 
sarge. — His father's devotion to the poor. — The son's tribute 
to him and to his gallant Confederate uncles. — The stren- 
uous life chosen in preference to a life of ease. 

Theodore Roosevelt, unlike Abraham Lincoln 
and other leaders whom the American people have 
delighted to honor and follow, was not born in a log 
cabin. On the contrary, he was born to wealth and 
position in the city of New York. Fortune spared 
him the anxious struggle for a living, which most of 
us must make from earliest boyhood. 

He was reared in an elegant home and educated in 
one of the famous universities of the country. He 
read law, but he had no need to practise a profession. 
His father had retired from business, and there was 
no occasion for the son to take up a business career. 
b 1 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



He tasted the enjoyments of travel in the Old 
World. The pleasure-loving society of his native 
city was open to him; his Knickerbocker name 
was a passport to the drawing-rooms of fashion 
and to the exclusive clubs. A life of ease was 
his if he chose. Not a few of his friends made 
this choice and gave themselves up to luxurious idle- 
ness. 

But Theodore Roosevelt preferred for himself a 
life of toil — the strenuous life. In this decision 
he accepted the part which nature seems to have been 
preparing for him through generations of his family 
history. 

He is descended, on his father's side, from a 
sturdy race of Dutch burghers, and he himself has 
a head which Rembrandt might have painted on one 
of his immortal canvases. The first Roosevelt, 
or Claes Martenszen Van Rosenvelt, as he was 
named, came from Holland to New York, or New 
Amsterdam, as it was then called, in 1649 or 1650. 
The place was a bit of quaint old Holland trans- 
planted to the New World, and its people, with their 
wooden shoes, big breeches, and long pipes, with 
their thrift, their cleanliness, and their windmills, 



A SON OF THE NORTH AND THE SOUTH 

were as loyal Dutch as those that stayed in the home- 
land behind the dikes. 

For full one hundred years the Roosevelts in this 
country made no marriage outside their race. The 
family name, Van Rosenvelt at first, then Rosenvelt 
and Rosavelt, did not get its present form of Roose- 
velt until after 1750. Theodore Roosevelt's early 
forbears were christened Nicholas, and Johannes, and 
Jacobus, and not until the Revolution did his ances- 
tors adopt English names. 

They were plain people, those founders of the 
family in America, and they got their living by their 
hands. In the beginning they lived at the Battery, 
the very lower end of Manhattan, but they have 
steadily moved up the island, generation by genera- 
tion. A large tract of land was bought by one of 
Theodore Roosevelt's ancestors for $500, and through 
it Roosevelt Street was laid out. His grandfather 
lived in Union Square, while his father's home was 
in 20th Street, and he himself has lived in 57th Street, 
within two blocks of Central Park. 

The social condition of the family kept pace with 
this upward movement geographically. As far back 
as 1750 one of the Roosevelts is dignified in the 

3 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



official records of the city with the title of Esquire, 
and in 1765 another is set down as "gentleman." 
Like the honest burghers that they were, the Roose- 
velts discharged their civic duties as aldermen from 
time to time, and in some branches there were one or 
two state senators, a congressman or so, and a judge. 
But, as with most New York families, they were 
generally men of business. 

For a century and a half they have been in the 
enjoyment of wealth. Theodore Roosevelt's grand- 
father, Cornelius Van Schaack Roosevelt, inherited a 
large fortune, and, as a glass importer and banker, 
he added a good deal to his inheritance. He was a 
most successful business man. Having himself left 
Columbia without graduating, he distrusted a college 
training for young men going into trade, and bred 
his son, Theodore, to follow in his footsteps. 

This son was the father of the President. It 
was while he was a member of the prosperous 
house of Roosevelt & Co. in Maiden Lane, and 
on a journey to Georgia as the groomsman of 
a friend from Philadelphia, that he met Miss 
Martha Bulloch, the beautiful young woman who 
was to be the mother of the President. She was 

4 



A SON OF THE NORTH AND THE SOUTH 

the sister of his friend's bride and in a year they, 
too, were married. 

The Bullochs were as notable a family in the 
South as the Roosevelts in the North. Mrs. Roose- 
velt's father had been a major in the Mexican War 
and her great-grandfather, Archibald Bulloch, was 
the first Governor of the state of Georgia in the time 
of the Revolution. 

Only a few years after this union of the North and 
the South, the great war between the sections shook 
the land. Nowhere in the North did it cast a deeper 
shadow than on the home of the Roosevelts. While 
her husband was deeply moved by loyalty to the 
Federal government, all of Mrs. Roosevelt's kindred 
in the old home went with the Confederacy. 
\ Mrs. Roosevelt's elder brother, Captain James 
Dunwoody Bulloch, had been in the United States 
navy, but at the outbreak of the war was in the mer- 
chant marine, commanding a ship plying between 
New York and New Orleans. This ship, the Bien- 
ville, was in port at New Orleans at the time of the 
secession of Louisiana from the Union, and the gov- 
ernor commanded Captain Bulloch to turn her over 
to the state. The Captain refused, and his fealty to 

5 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



the South was brought into doubt. Nevertheless 
he believed that honor required him to deliver the 
vessel into the hands of her owners in New York. 
Until he had done that he did not feel free to join 
the Confederacy. 

On offering his services to Jefferson Davis he was 
at once commissioned a captain in the Confederate 
navy and despatched to England to buy arms for 
the new government. He discharged this duty 
successfully and delivered his purchases, being the 
first to run the blockade. 

His next assignment was one of the most important 
and delicate tasks that fell to a Confederate officer. 
He returned to England to buy and equip vessels 
of war for the South. The British government was 
forbidden by the laws of neutrality to permit such a 
thing to be done in her ports. The minister of the 
United States did his utmost to prevent the launch- 
ing of the Confederate vessels which Captain Bul- 
loch built, and commissioners were hastened from 
Washington, with $10,000,000 in United States 
bonds, in a last effort to stop his work. 

But he was not checked until he had set afloat 
fully half a dozen ships under the stars and bars of 

6 



A SON OF THE NORTH AND THE SOUTH 

the South, among them the Alabama, and when the 
war was over Great Britain was compelled, by the 
arbitration of Geneva, to pay the government of 
the United States $15,000,000 for the damages which 
Captain Bulloch's ships had inflicted on Northern 
shipping. 

Mrs. Roosevelt's younger brother won a com- 
mission in the navy of the South and was the navi- 
gating officer of the Alabama in the destructive 
cruise of that ship. When the Alabama was sunk 
in a battle with the United States ship Kearsarge 
off" the coast of France, he commanded the last 
gun that was in action and fired the last shot from 
her sinking deck. The men of the Alabama were 
rescued by an English yacht, and Irvine Stephens 
Bulloch married the daughter of one of his English 
rescuers. 

President Roosevelt has not hesitated to say that 
he is proud of the gallantry of his Confederate uncles 
in the war, and of one of them he has said, "My 
uncle always struck me as the nearest approach to 
Colonel Newcome of any man I ever met in actual 
life." 

It was not the strife, but the suffering of the war 

7 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



that appealed to Theodore Roosevelt the elder. 
True, he helped to raise and equip regiments at the 
outset and was an organizer of the Union League 
Club for the purpose of rallying the supporters of 
the cause of the Union. But when the war was well 
under way, he gave himself almost entirely to aiding 
the sick and wounded, to caring for the families 
and the widows and orphans of the soldiers. He 
was among the foremost in starting and carrying 
on the Sanitary Commission, which did so much for 
the health and comfort of those who bore the battle. 

It was he who went to President Lincoln with a 
bill, which he had drawn and which Congress adopted 
with the President's approval, authorizing each state 
to receive such sums of money as the soldiers were 
willing to set aside from their pay and to see that 
this money was given to their families. Many of 
those whose breadwinners had gone into the army 
were almost starving, while the soldiers at the front, 
sometimes without safe means of sending money 
home and often careless of their obligations to those 
they had left behind, were wasting their wages. 

Mr. Roosevelt went from camp to camp on long, 
hard winter journeys, persuading the men in New 



A SON OF THE NORTH AND THE SOUTH 

York regiments to assign to the state more or less 
of their monthly allowance. In this way several 
million dollars were rescued in the course of the war 
and delivered to the wives and mothers of the boys 
in blue, enabling them to keep roofs over their heads 
and homes to which they welcomed the veterans 
when they came back from the war. 

On the return of peace, when hundreds of thou- 
sands of young men were suddenly mustered out of 
the army and thrown upon their own resources, 
Mr. Roosevelt formed in New York, whose streets 
were thronged with idle and moneyless men, a 
Soldiers' Employment Bureau. To see that they 
got their just dues from the government without 
being robbed by claim agents, he joined in establish- 
ing the Protective War Claims Association. 

The call to these nobler duties, which the war 
had brought him, turned the elder Theodore Roose- 
velt from the business career which his father had 
planned for him. The philanthropic tendencies of 
his family, manifested in every generation for a 
hundred years, became the controlling force in his 
life. His grandfather had given his services as 
commissary to the Continental Army without pay. 

9 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



His father had been a liberal contributor to charity, 
and one of his kinsmen had given the larger part of 
his fortune to found the great Roosevelt Hospital 
in New York. 

Theodore Roosevelt, the elder, belonged from 
birth to the House of Have, but he determined to 
give his heart to the House of Want. He was not 
rich, as riches are counted in New York; but he 
had all that he and his family needed, and he would 
not go on piling up a hoard of unneeded wealth. 

Nearly all his life he had made it his practice to 
set apart one day of every week, wholly for the 
service of the less fortunate, visiting and cheering 
them as a friend, while he meant to let no day pass 
without some act of kindness to its credit. 

"I remember seeing him," his son fondly said of 
the father, "going down Broadway, staid and 
respectable business man as he was, with a poor 
little sick kitten in his pocket, a waif which he had 
picked up in the street." 

He withdrew from business more and more, until, 
at last, he quit it entirely that he might give himself, 
as well as his money, to lighten, as he could, the 
burden of the poor in the great city. Thus he was 



A SON OF THE NORTH AND THE SOUTH 

free to devote himself to his children and to those 
other children of his sympathies, the children of the 
people. He was the active head of the Children's 
Aid Society, and for years never missed a Sunday 
evening at the 18th Street lodging house of that 
society. His generous activities were widely recog- 
nized, and he was made chairman of the State Board 
of Charities. 

Heavy as his sense of duty was and keen as were 
his sympathies with those in misfortune, Mr. Roose- 
velt was yet a pleasure-loving man, and his dis- 
tinguished son has boasted, "My father was the 
finest man I ever knew, and the happiest." He 
delighted in the woods; he was fond of sailing his 
yacht, took part in many athletic sports and drove 
a four-in-hand with skill in the park. 

In politics he was loyal to the principles of his 
party, but he was as independent of the bosses as 
his son has shown himself to be. President Hayes 
honored him for this independence and nominated 
him to the highest federal office in the state, the 
collectorship of the port of New York. But the 
bosses knew that they could not control him and they 
had the power to cause the Senate to reject his name. 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



Mr. Roosevelt died in what should have been his 
prime, but yet not until he had seen his son and 
namesake, over whom he had watched with so much 
loving anxiety and upon whom he had looked with 
the proudest hope, a student at Harvard, and dis- 
playing among his fellows a promise of that strength 
and soundness, alike in body and in character, 
which he had done his best to give him. As the 
good man lay dying, the children of the tenements 
brought him flowers and sent him tear-stained letters, 
and when he died, the flags of the city were lowered 
to half-stafF in honor of this modest, great-hearted 
private citizen. "His life," the members of the 
Union League Club declared in their resolutions, 
"was a stirring summons to the men of wealth, of 
culture and of leisure, to a more active participation 
in public affairs." 

This is the summons which Theodore Roosevelt, 
the younger, has obeyed. The spirit of service was 
bred in him. He stands the embodiment of his 
father's devotion to public duty on the one hand, 
and on the other, of the gallantry of those Con- 
federate uncles, whose daring feats have been his 
admiration since childhood. 



CHAPTER II 

BOYHOOD BATTLES 



A youth beset with disadvantages. — The first rich man's son to 
find a way to leadership in American history. — The only 
city-born boy to reach the Presidency. — A long struggle against 
ill health. — Schooling interrupted. — Seeking strength in 
Europe and at home. — How he won the first and hardest of 
his battles and fitted himself to play a man's part in life. 

The boyhood of Theodore Roosevelt was beset 
with disadvantages such as few have had to over- 
come. It is true that he did not need to toil in the 
wilderness, as Washington did in his youth, or, like 
Lincoln, walk many miles to get a book to read. 
But struggles and privations of that kind are believed 
to have been the making of many of our foremost men. 

Among all the youths born to wealth, Roosevelt 
alone has gained an important place in the history 
of our democracy. Shielded and pampered in 
youth, the average rich boy has no heart for the rude 
shock of manhood's battles, and learns with despair 
that there is no royal road to fame. "Theodore 
Roosevelt, a bright, precocious boy, aged twelve," the 

13 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



family physician wrote in his "case book," and then 
remarked to his partner, "he ought to make his 
mark but for the difficulty that he has a rich father.'* 

Not only have all our foremost men been without 
rich fathers, but Roosevelt is the first city-born boy 
to reach the Presidency. All of his twenty-four 
predecessors were country or village lads, and grew 
up where life was simple and the paths of duty plain. 
But a boy born in a big city opens his eyes upon a 
world that is like a tangled network. 

In the primeval wilderness a boy's work is cut 
out for him. There are trees to be felled, houses to 
be built, stumps to be pulled, and soil to be turned. 
In the wilderness of a great city, where the hand 
must seek its task, the boy" too often is lost while 
trying to find the thing that needs to be done. Thus 
of all the hundreds of thousands of boys native to 
New York one may count on his fingers the few 
who have found the road to fame. The men who 
achieve most in the city have come from the country, 
as a rule, and were trained in the country. 

Ill health, however, was the first and greatest of 
all of Roosevelt's disadvantages. "When a boy," 
he has said, "I was pig-chested and asthmatic." 

14 



BOYHOOD BATTLES 



From earliest infancy he was called to battle with 
asthma. It lowered his vitality and threatened his 
growth. This was the longest and hardest of his 
fights. No encounter of his Rough Rider cam- 
paign, no wrestle with the Senate or the trusts or the 
bosses, has been equal to that conflict in his child- 
hood with the grim enemy of health. But faith and 
will are his chief support in every contest he enters 
and they sustained him then. His body was frail, 
but within was the conquering spirit. He deter- 
mined to be strong like other boys. 

In this he had the loving help of gentle parents. 
On the wide back porch of their 20th Street home 
they fitted up a gymnasium, where he strove for 
bodily vigor with all his might. It is among the 
fond recollections of his family that although at the 
start his pole climbing was very poor, he kept try- 
ing until he got to the top. He would carry his 
gymnastic exercises to the perilous verge of the 
window ledge, more to the alarm of the neighbors 
than of his own family. "If the Lord hadn't taken 
care of Theodore," his mother would say, "he would 
have been killed long ago." 

In the Roosevelt home the simple life reigned 

is 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



always. But the summer was the season of Theo 
dore's delight. Then he ceased to be a city boy. 
At his father's country place, "Tranquillity," some 
three miles from his present home at Oyster Bay, 
he learned to run and ride, row and swim. And 
when the long, sleepless nights came, the father- 
would take his invalid boy in his arms, wrap him> 
up warmly and drive with him in the free open air 
through fifteen or twenty miles of darkness. 

He had his father's love of the woods and the 
fields, and he studied and classified the birds of the 
neighborhood until he knew their songs and plumage 
and nests. He and his young friends could be 
relied on to find the spot where the violets bloomed 
the earliest, and the trees on which the walnuts were 
most plentiful, as well as the pools where the minnows 
swarmed and the favorite refuge of the coon. 

"I never wanted to go to school," he has ad- 
mitted. Yet he never was a stranger to books, 
which he read quickly but thoroughly. He did not 
believe in skipping the big words merely because they 
were hard. That seemed to him too like shirking. 
His sisters still smile at the recollection of one 
characteristic instance, when he was a very little 

16 



BOYHOOD BATTLES 



chap in stiff white petticoats, with a curl on the 
top of his head. He was reading Dr. Livingstone's 
African travels, a ponderous volume of which he 
carried around the house in search of some one 
who would take the trouble to tell him what "forag- 
ing ants" were. At last he commanded attention 
and pointed out the term in the book which had 
aroused his curiosity. But it proved to be no new 
discovery in natural history. Dr. Livingstone had 
only referred to the "foregoing ants." 

Weakness so often interrupted his studies that he 
took no pleasure in the competition of the school- 
room, although the records of the public school, 
which he attended for a time, give him 97 in 
geography, 96 in history, and 98 in rhetoric. Even 
86 in spelling is pretty good for a spelling reformer. 
It is remembered by his teachers that he was strong 
in composition and declamation and that he had 
uncommon skill in map making. His schooling, 
however, was necessarily irregular, and he was pre- 
pared for college by private instruction. 

He was taken to Europe in 1869 in the hope that 
it would benefit his health. "A tall, thin lad with 
bright eyes and legs like pipe stems," is the memory- 
c 17 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



picture drawn by one who was a playmate of his on 
the ship. Again, in 1873, he crossed the seas and 
went to Algiers, for his weakened lungs were giving 
his family some concern and the warm African air 
was sought as a balm for them. By President Grant's 
appointment, his father was the American commis- 
sioner to the Vienna exposition in that year and 
Theodore, with his brother Elliott and sister Corinne, 
now Mrs. Douglas Robinson, were brought from 
Algiers to Dresden, in Germany, where they were 
placed in the home of a tutor. 

This tutor interested Theodore because he was 
an old revolutionist of '48 and had suffered in 
prison for German liberty. He was, moreover, a 
member of the German parliament or Reichstag in 
1873. It is recalled in this family that their young 
American guest was an eager and enterprising stu- 
dent, but not a brilliant scholar. Nevertheless, one 
member of the household has lived to vow that she 
predicted then that he would be President of the 
United States. "He seemed to pick up things, one 
did not know how." He delighted in the German 
classics and he laid the foundation for speaking 
German well, although his asthma, while in Dresden, 

18 



BOYHOOD BATTLES 



made uninterrupted conversation by him very dif- 
ficult. 

He took drawing lessons and showed an unusual 
interest in natural history. When the Roosevelts 
were leaving Dresden for Switzerland, it was found 
that Theodore's trunk was so filled with the stones 
he had collected that he had discarded some of his 
clothing. His mother thought it better to leave the 
stones than the clothes, but as fast as she threw them 
out of the trunk, the young disciple of nature picked 
them up and put as many of them as he could in 
his pockets. 

Dresden has always remained a happy memory 
to Mr. Roosevelt, and just before entering Harvard 
he wrote to his old friends in Germany: "I shall 
not go into business until I have passed through 
college, which will not be for four years. What 
business I shall enter then I do not know." He did 
not need to cross that bridge until he came to it. 

He had won the battle of his boyhood. He had 
vanquished the enemy and was ready to play a man's 
part in life. "I made my health what it is," he has 
said. "I determined to be strong and well and did 
everything to make myself so. By the time I entered 

19 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



Harvard I was able to take part in whatever sports 
I liked. I wrestled and sparred and I ran a great 
deal, and, although I never came in first, I got more 
out of the exercise than those who did, because I 
immensely enjoyed it and never injured myself." 



20 



CHAPTER III 

COLLEGE DAYS 



Enters Harvard in 1876. — Welcomed by the select clubs, but 
popular with all his classmates. — Plucky boxing in the light- 
weight class at the gymnasium. — Pursues sport, not for success, 
but for his physical development. — A characteristic experience 
while teaching Sunday school. — Camp life with Bill Sewall in 
the Maine woods, where he learned to love the wilderness and 
brought himself nearer still to his constant goal, a vigorous 
body. — Graduates twenty-second in the class of 1880. 

At Harvard, where he was a member of the class 
of '80, Theodore Roosevelt was neither a "grind" 
nor a trifler. His name and his means, two things 
that count for a good deal in Cambridge, gave him 
a chance to splurge. But his boyhood struggle had 
given him simple tastes, and he could not be a snob 
because he had been brought up to respect the 
feelings of others. 

He selected two rooms in a lodging house near 
Harvard Yard and these he fitted up plainly. In- 
stead of the unbecoming extravagance and frivolity, 
with which well-to-do students sometimes furnish 
their quarters, at an expense running into the thou- 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

sands, his were ornamented by the skins of stuffed 
animals and by rare birds which he himself mounted. 
He did sport a high and fancy trap, which was the 
latest fashion then, for he loved a horse, although 
he was not yet the master of the saddle which he 
afterward became. 

All the more select clubs and societies took him 
in and his name was enrolled among the chosen few 
of his class in the Institute of 1770, the Porcellian 
and the Alpha Delta Phi, more renowned as the 
A. D., while he was secretary of the famous old 
Hasty Pudding Club. At the same time he is re- 
membered pleasantly by that other and far larger 
part of his classmates, who were not of this coterie, 
although he had not yet gained the full measure of 
his active democratic spirit which his broader life 
out of college was to give him. 

While he did not by any means make himself a 
stranger to, the homes in Cambridge and in Boston, 
which were cordially open to him, his chief interests 
were apart from formal society. He welcomed 
the chance to meet his fellows in the friendly rivalry 
of vigorous sports, and to put to the test the strength 
and skill he had acquired on his back porch gym- 



COLLEGE DAYS 



nasium at home. To develop the muscles of his 
legs, which were not yet the firm support that they 
were to be in his full maturity, he took to skipping 
the rope. Others caught the habit from him, and 
rope skipping passed into the fashion of the day. 
Wrestling was another of his hearty pastimes, and 
he pursued it as a science. 

His boxing, however, is best remembered at 
Harvard of all his sporting activities. His delicate 
appearance amazed those who saw him make his 
first ventures with the gloves in the gymnasium. 
He weighed only one hundred and thirty and was a 
very doubtful-looking entry in the light-weight class. 
Besides, he had to go into combat with a pair of big 
spectacles lashed to his head, a bad handicap, which 
put his eyesight in peril every time he boxed. To 
offset this disadvantage, he aimed to lead swiftly 
and heavily and thus put his opponent on the de- 
fensive from the start. 

Not a few old Harvard men recall a characteristic 
instance of Roosevelt's sportsmanlike bearing. He 
was in the midst of a hot encounter when time was 
called. He promptly dropped his hands to his side, 
whereupon his antagonist dealt him a heavy blow 

23 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



squarely on his nose. There was an instant cry of 
"Foul, foul," from the sympathetic onlookers and 
a scene of noisy excitement followed. Above the 
uproar, Roosevelt, his face covered with blood, was 
heard shouting at the top of his voice, as he ran 
toward the referee, "Stop! stop! he didn't hear! 
he didn't hear!" Then he shook the hand of the 
other youth warmly, and the emotion of the little 
crowd changed from scorn of his opponent to admira- 
tion of him. 

He may never have come in first, as he has said, 
but he was always so ready, even to meet the 
class champion himself, and took the knocks in such 
good part that he never was second in the regard 
of all who delighted in pluck. Moreover, he did 
not go in to win so much as to get out of the game 
all the fun and exercise he could. Sport for sport's 
sake was his standard. He did not adopt base ball, 
foot-ball, or any form of team work or spectacular 
display. He was spared, therefore, the fate of too 
many athletes, who let their play become the serious 
business of their college days, and whose false point 
of view works them a lifelong injury by stunting 
their minds and warping their characters. 

24 



COLLEGE DAYS 



Nothing better shows the even balance which 
Roosevelt kept than that while he was active in the 
gymnasium, he was also active in the Sunday school. 
He had joined the old church of his fathers, the Dutch 
Reformed, in New York, before going to Harvard. 
There being no church of his denomination in 
Cambridge, however, he took a class in an Episcopal 
Sunday school. 

He had learned the spirit of service from his 
father. He must not live unto himself alone; he 
must feel he was doing something for others. He 
got along famously with his boys. When one of 
them came into the class with a black eye, the 
teacher questioned him earnestly about it. The boy 
explained, with manifest truthfulness, that his sister 
had been pinched by a boy who sat beside her. He 
had told the offender to stop and he would not stop, 
whereupon the gallant brother had fought for her. 

"You did perfectly right," said Roosevelt, the 
muscular Christian, and he gave him a dollar as a 
poultice for the black eye. The class hailed this as 
a fine example of justice, and drew nearer than before 
to their teacher, for there is no way to get a firmer 
grip on a boy's heart than by taking his part in 

25 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



battle. Some of the grave elders of the parish, 
however, hearing of the matter, were much dis- 
pleased. In the end, Roosevelt left this field of 
labor and found a class in another Sunday school. 

Another remembered incident of his Cambridge 
life shows how well he had gained that readiness to 
act in any situation, which is one of his marked 
traits at all times. A horse in a stable adjoining 
his lodgings aroused the neighborhood in the dead 
of night by a noise that indicated it was in sore 
trouble. Half a dozen men got up and dressed and 
went to the rescue, only to find, when they reached 
the stable, that Roosevelt was already on the scene 
and doing the needed thing to relieve the poor beast. 
For he had not stopped to dress nor even to take 
time to walk downstairs. He had gone to the 
rescue out of a second-story back window, and 
climbed' down a piazza post in his night clothes. 

Just before entering Harvard, Roosevelt, on the 
advice of two of his cousins, took a step which had 
a lasting influence on his life. They sent him down 
in Maine to their old guide, Bill Sewall of Island 
Falls. With this born woodsman he learned to know 
and love the wilderness. There he developed tastes 

26 



COLLEGE DAYS 



which later led him out into the wild West, to be a 
ranchman, a hunter, and finally the organizer of the 
Rough Riders, things which have done so much to 
shape his fortunes. Besides, he made a lifelong friend 
of Bill Sewall, as true a one as he can count among 
all his friendships. 

Island Falls was then beyond the railway and on 
the very edge of the immense wild lands of the Pine 
Tree State. In that village the pale, stoop-shoul- 
dered young gentleman from New York made him- 
self at home, and one of the villagers has declared : 
"Every one in the Falls liked him, for he was as plain 
as a spruce board and as square as a brick." He 
lived like a son in the simple home of the back- 
woodsman and tramped and camped with Bill as 
a chum. 

The experience was an object lesson in democracy, 
which was not lost on his youthful imagination. It 
helped him to learn that no little caste of well-to-do 
city people and college graduates, no Four Hun- 
dred, could boast all the wisdom and virtue of 
the race. He found that there was much that a 
Knickerbocker could gain by association with an 
aristocrat of the forest. It recalls to mind the old, 

27 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



old story of the learned man in the boat of the 
fisherman : — 

"Don't you know the rules of syntax?" the 
pedant asked. 

"No," the fisherman answered. 

"Then one-fourth of your life is lost. Do you 
know algebra ?" 

"No." 

"Then one-half of your life is lost. Do you know 
geometry?" But before the fisherman could con- 
fess his ignorance of this latter branch of learning, a 
huge wave upset the boat and cast both him and the 
professor into the water. 

"Do you know how to swim?" he shouted to 
the professor. 

"No," the poor man cried. 

"Then the whole of your life is lost." 

Roosevelt was learning to value men according to 
what they knew, rather than by what they did not 
know. 

In his days with the Sewalls he did not go for 
big game and "he never could keep still long enough 
to fish." He shot his first deer while in the Adiron- 
dacks, and in Maine he was content to roam the 

28 



COLLEGE DAYS 



primeval forest, sleep with Bill in his hunting hut 
and bag enough birds for their meals. His guide 
had been appealed to by Theodore's cousins to 
watch that he did not try to do more than his strength 
warranted. But "he wouldn't let any one else lug 
his gun," Bill said, "or help him out in any way. 
He never shirked his share of anything, no matter 
how played out he might be. The boy was grit 
clear through." 

Again and again he would return to his good 
friends in the woods for a vacation from college 
studies. Once at least he went only in time to save 
himself from a physical breakdown. Always he 
found abundant healing in the midst of nature and 
each time he brought himself nearer to his constant 
goal, a vigorous body. 

When he graduated from Harvard he stood 
twenty-second in his class, which, by the way, was 
about the same as Grant's rank at West Point. He 
won few academic honors. No Commencement part 
fell to him and the only mention he received was in 
natural history. 

In spite of the interruptions in his attendance at 
college, however, he had gained that first quality of 

29 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



success, the power to concentrate his interest and 
attention on the subject in hand. Often he would 
drop into the crowded room of a fellow-student for 
a visit, but, chancing upon a book that appealed to 
his attention, he would sit absorbed in it, without 
noticing what might be going on around him. 
Sometimes his entire call would pass in this way, 
and closing the book, he would hurry off, with an 
apology to the fellows. They all set him down as 
more or less crazy, on this account as well as on 
account of his various enthusiasms, which embraced 
several subjects, ranging from Elizabethan poetry 
to his rash impulses to run off on tiger hunts in India. 
Nevertheless, all respected his earnest, if somewhat 
irregular, devotion to scholarship. 



3° 



CHAPTER IV 

CHOOSING A CAREER 



October 27, 1880, marriage of Theodore Roosevelt and Miss Alice 
Hathaway Lee. — A European honeymoon. — Setting up a 
home in New York. — Publishes his first work, "The Naval 
History of the War of 181 2." — Death of Theodore Roosevelt, 
the elder, February 9, 1878, aged 46. — The son inspired by 
his father's memory to seek a life of service. — Gives up early 
ambition to be a professor of natural history. — Studies law 
and enters politics. — Fifth Avenue friends laugh at him for 
joining political club of his ward. — His novel campaign in 
the "Diamond Back District." — Elected to the Legislature 
in November, 1 881. 

Graduating from Harvard at twenty-one, Theo- 
dore Roosevelt went into the world, a fairly robust 
man, of strong character and high ambition. The 
choice of a career he left to the future. That he 
would have a useful one he was fully determined. 
He had no thought of returning to New York and 
swelling the ranks of the "unemployed rich." 

He acted then in accord with the opinion he ex- 
pressed in later years when he said: "There is 
nowhere in the world a more ignoble character than 
the mere money-getting American, insensible to 
every duty, bent only on amassing a fortune and 

31 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



putting his fortune only to the basest uses, whether 
these uses be to speculate in stocks or to wreck rail- 
roads himself, or to allow his son to lead a life oft 
foolish and expensive idleness and gross debauchery, 
or to purchase some scoundrel and his social posi- 
tion, foreign or native, for his daughter." 

Roosevelt's noble father had died, but the memory 
of his life of duty was a living inspiration to the son.. 
He, too, must find a chance to serve. More than once 
in the years that have followed, when he has done ai 
thing which he deemed worthy of this example, so 
constantly before him, he has been heard to exclaim : 
"How I wish father were here and could see it ! " 

He had married in the autumn following his 
graduation a young lady whom he met in his Harvard! 
days, Alice Hathaway Lee, the daughter of a notable 
Boston family of wealth and culture. After a honey- 
moon in Europe, where Mr. Roosevelt climbed the 
Matterhorn on a dare, the young couple went to> 
housekeeping in New York. 

There he loyally undertook to carry on his father's 
work. He became the secretary of the Prison Reform 
Association and joined in various philanthropic 
movements with which the elder Theodore Roosevelt 

32 



CHOOSING A CAREER 



had been associated. But he soon found that Theo- 
dore Roosevelt, the younger, was quite another man 
and that the best way to honor the name was to find 
his own work and then do it in his own way. 

He had not thought of becoming a writer of books. 
At Harvard, he was one of the editors of the college 
paper, the Advocate, but did almost no writing for 
it. The foundation of his first book was laid by 
chance. He was fond of both civil and military 
history. It was in the course of his reading along 
this line that he found a number of manifest errors 
in the history of the naval battles in the War of 1812. 
Merely to satisfy himself, he began an investigation 
of the facts. He diligently sought out every record 
of the conflict, on the shelves of the Harvard library, 
until he had gathered sufficient material for a new 
history of our sea struggles with Great Britain. 
This he brought out in two volumes the year after 
leaving college, and "The Naval History of the War 
of 18 12" received praise both in England and 
America that was flattering to a young author in 
his twenty-third year. 

When he first went to college and on his earlier 
visits to the wilds of Maine, Mr. Roosevelt's deepest 
D 33 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



interest, among all his studies, was in natural his- 
tory, and he was looking forward to fitting himself 
to be a professor of that branch of instruction. He 
had begun by learning the birds and trees and 
flowers around Oyster Bay, and at Harvard he took 
more pleasure in natural history than in any other 
part of his work. 

Not only were his college lodgings decorated with 
birds, which showed his skill in mounting, but his 
tastes attracted some rather queer living companions 
of the insect and reptile species. His fellow-lodgers 
have a lively recollection of the alarm caused in the 
house once when an enormous tortoise was en- 
countered in the hallway. It had escaped from 
Roosevelt's rooms and presumably was heading for 
the bath-room to get a drink of water. 

On another occasion his active interest in this 
direction caused almost a panic in a street car, where 
some lobsters, which he was taking out from Boston 
for the purpose of scientific study, escaped from 
their package and introduced themselves to the 
passengers. That his devotion to this science con- 
tinued to the end is shown by his having chosen 
natural history as the theme of his graduating essay. 

34 



CHOOSING A CAREER 



But as he gained in physical strength his interests 
constantly broadened. The love of combat stirred 
in his blood and he began to think he might like a 
more aggressive life than that of a teacher. Bill 
Sewall says he told him to go into politics, and that 
Roosevelt finally agreed that it would be a good field 
for him if he could only find something to do in it. 

"He who has not wealth owes his first duty to his 
family," he has since said; "but he who has means 
owes his time to the state. It is ignoble to go on 
heaping money on money. I would preach the 
doctrine of work for all — to the men of wealth, the 
doctrine of unremunerative work." That is the doc- 
trine which he practised long before he preached it. 
While he was joining in some amateur political 
movements among the young men of his acquaint- 
ance he took up the study of law, but with no serious 
purpose to make that his calling. It proved to be a 
part of his general training for the work which he 
was to do. He entered the law course at Columbia 
College, in the city, and at the same time studied in 
the law office of an uncle. At the lectures he showed 
the same earnestness which always marked his 
attention to any subject that he took up. A member 

35 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



of the class has placed on record in an English maga- 
zine that Mr. Roosevelt frequently interrupted the 
lecturer with a request for more detailed informa- 
tion, and from this fact the writer argued that he 
was slow of wit. But it is barely possible that he 
had the courage to confess his ignorance where 
others in the lecture room chose to glide over the 
hard places in silence. 

Meanwhile his interest in politics was steadily 
leading him in that direction. At the outset the 
prospect was not a pleasing one. To gain an 
entrance into public life was not an easy thing for a 
man of his stamp in the city of New York. In the 
small towns, where most of our successful public 
men make their beginning, it is simple enough for 
bright young men to get a chance to show what there 
is in them. Their friends and neighbors will start 
them, and if they do well, their community will push 
them. 

There was, however, nearly a three to one majority 
against Mr. Roosevelt's party in his community, 
while, as for his friends and neighbors, they had 
nothing to do with politics, except to vote on election 
day. Hotel lobbies and barrooms, and not the 

36 




Theodore Roosevelt 



CHOOSING A CAREER 



homes, were the political centres of New York. All 
nominations and honors were controlled by the 
bosses, who, with their machines, could have no 
more use for him than they had for his father, when 
they refused to accept him as the Collector of the Port. 
Nevertheless, Mr. Roosevelt, with the faith which 
has overcome so many obstacles in his pathway, 
went into politics within a year after leaving college. 
A university education and foreign travel had left 
him still a simple faith in his country, an ardent 
type of Young America. He had none of that 
despair and disdain which culture sometimes gives 
a youth. He attended a Harvard dinner in New 
York years after leaving college, and a professor 
there told of an experience with such a man among 
the recent graduates. He had asked this graduate 
what he was going to do now that he had received 
an education. "Oh, really, do you know, pro- 
fessor," the callow citizen replied, "it does not seem 
to me that there is anything much worth while." 
Mr. Roosevelt, on hearing this story, was greatly 
wrought up, and striking the table a loud whack, 
declared "that fellow ought to have been knocked 
in the head." When he himself was a young 

37 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



graduate he saw plenty to do and at once went 
about it. 

He did not go into politics like some men of means 
whom he has since ridiculed and who "get together 
in a big hall where they vociferously demand reform 
as if it were some concrete substance which could be 
handed out to them in slices and who then disband 
with a feeling of the most serene self-satisfaction." 
He thought that political conditions should be 
made better, but he did not call upon some one else 
to make them better; he himself undertook to do 
his share of the hard work. 

He determined to join his district political club. 
His Fifth Avenue friends laughed heartily. It was 
too funny for anything to think of a Roosevelt in 
ward politics. "You'll meet only the groom and 
the saloon-keeper there," they are remembered to 
have said. "Well," replied the youth, "if that is so, 
they are the governing class in this city then, and 
they rule you. They must be better men than you 
are." 

His home at that time was at 55 West 45th Street, 
which was in the 21st Assembly district. The Re- 
publican club or association for that district met in 

38 



CHOOSING A CAREER 



Morton Hall in 59th Street, near Fifth Avenue, and 
he said that the ruling classes he saw there were 
"a jolly enough lot." He had "a bully time," and 
was not at all afraid of soiling his hands. The 
"boys" did not understand "just what his game 
was," but they voted him a "good fellow," without 
any of the airs of the silk-stocking crowd. 

Pretty soon he found himself in a hot debate at 
one of these meetings, and, from the applause which 
his speech received, he has confessed that he was 
confident of victory. But when it came to a ballot, 
the silent nod of the boss decided the issue, and the 
youthful politician was amazed to find his motion 
was lost by a vote of 95 to 3. 

It chanced, however, in the fall, when it came 
time to send a man to the Legislature, that the 
bosses fell out among themselves and the little bosses 
made up their minds that if they could get Mr. 
Roosevelt's friends, his "swell friends," to come out 
to the primaries and vote for him, they could teach 
a lesson to the big boss, a man named Jacob Hess. 
But Mr. Roosevelt had not gone into politics to 
get an office before he earned it, and he refused to 
be a candidate. They were shrewd, however, and 

39 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



they taunted him. Where was his public spirit, 
where was his sense of duty to the dear people ? 
Then he offered to find some older man, who would 
stand as a candidate. All whom he called upon really 
could not think of doing it; they were too busy. 
Finally he himself had to go into the fight or be 
sneered out of the councils of the district. And 
he stood. Once he entered the fray, he went in to 
win, and it was not long before the old boss made 
a virtue of necessity and accepted him. 

The district was a long, narrow strip of Manhattan 
Island, with Fifth Avenue running up the middle, 
and stretching from 40th Street to 80th Street. It 
was known as the "Diamond Back District," because 
of the wealth of its residents. In the same region 
William Waldorf Astor was running for Congress 
on the ticket which carried Theodore Roosevelt's 
name for the Legislature, and he was scattering his 
money and kissing all the babies on his way. Boss 
Hess very kindly came around to Roosevelt and 
offered to introduce him to his constituents. Nat- 
urally he started in with the saloons. Their first 
call was on a Sixth Avenue barkeeper, who assumed, 
of course, that if elected, Roosevelt would be against 

40 



CHOOSING A CAREER 



raising the price of saloon licenses. The candidate, 
however, was not sure about it; in fact, he thought 
there was a good deal to be said in favor of a high 
license law, and the first thing the astonished Hess 
knew Roosevelt was arguing along that line with 
the indignant saloon-keeper. There was no use in 
trying to get votes for a fellow like that, and the boss 
gave up the electioneering trip among the saloons 
right there. 

Thrown on his own resources, Roosevelt dropped 
that kind of campaigning and started in to canvass 
the homes of the district. The homes responded. 
Fifth Avenue caught the infection of the young man's 
enthusiasm. His friends rallied around him. Mil- 
lionaires solicited the votes of their butlers and 
coachmen. There was a fusion of all sorts and 
conditions of people in the cause of the democratic 
young aristocrat, as there has since been in a far 
larger constituency, and Roosevelt scored an hon- 
orable victory on election day, while Astor, running 
for Congress, went down in a disgraceful defeat and 
left the country. 



41 



CHAPTER V 

IN POLITICS 



A member of the Legislature of 1882-83-84. — The youngest man 
in the House. — Fighting the bosses. — Nominated for Speaker, 
1883, by the Republicans, who then abandon him. — "I was 
absolutely deserted." — But he does not sulk. — "My first 
real lesson in politics." — The Roosevelt Committee investigates 
New York City in 1884. — A great political victory. — Mr. Roose- 
velt Delegate-at-Large and Chairman of the New York Dele- 
gation in the famous National Convention of 1884. — Opposes 
Blaine's nomination for President, but does not leave the Re- 
publican party. — Retires from politics. 

Mr. Roosevelt was only twenty-three and the 
youngest man in the Legislature when he took his 
seat at Albany. It was not long until he was one 
of the most widely known members, for he showed 
his fighting qualities from the start. 

"It was a particularly disagreeable year to be in 
the Legislature," he has said. "The composition 
of that body was unusually bad." There arose a 
scandal concerning a judge, but the machine ordered 
silence. Roosevelt, however, moved his impeach- 
ment, and, standing alone, he pressed the issue, day 
after day, until on the eighth day the public opinion 

42 



IN POLITICS 



of the state came to his support and his motion was 
carried by 104 to 6. Once beyond his reach, how- 
ever, the measure was suppressed by the bosses, 
and when he came up for re-election, they started 
in to suppress him as well. 

Many of the good people of his district, who vowed 
it was a shame for the machine to try to defeat him, 
could not be moved to give him any active assistance. 
One of them, who was wildly indignant that there 
should be any opposition to a good young man, when 
asked to stay at the polls on election day was very 
sorry that he had an engagement to go quail shoot- 
ing. Nevertheless, Mr. Roosevelt was reelected, 
although his party was routed almost everywhere, 
for that was the year in which the Democrats, under 
Grover Cleveland, swept the state by nearly two 
hundred thousand majority. 

The new Legislature was Democratic, but the 
Republicans did the best they could for Mr. Roose- 
velt and gave him the honor of their nomination as 
Speaker. While this vote did not seat him in the 
Speaker's chair, it conferred upon him the leader- 
ship of the minority. 

He did not hold that place long, however, for he 

43 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



would not take orders from the bosses. The machine 
found him impossible; he "wouldn't listen to 
reason." It was in a vain appeal to him that a 
practical politician at Albany coined a phrase which 
became famous. This gentleman, in trying to 
remove Mr. Roosevelt's objections to a bill, urged 
him not to "let the Constitution come between 
friends." 

"I was absolutely deserted," Mr. Roosevelt has 
confessed in a magazine article, describing this 
period in his life. He was the rising hope of all 
the reformers and idealists; but, alas, they were not 
in the Legislature. They generally contented them- 
selves with staying at home and urging their ideals 
upon him by mail. One of them got in the habit 
of telegraphing him daily, but Roosevelt corrected 
this habit by sending him replies, hundreds of words 
in length — collect. 

Deserted though he was, he did not sulk or give 
up the fight. When men would not follow him, he 
looked around to find men whom he could follow. 
If some one had a good bill Mr. Roosevelt would 
work with him for its passage. His spirit of manly 
fairness soon made itself felt, and other fair-minded 

44 



IN POLITICS 



members were willing to listen to him and join in 
behalf of his measures. 

"That was my first real lesson in politics," he 
has said. "It was just this; if you are cast on a 
desert island, with only a screw-driver, a hatchet, 
and a chisel to make a boat with, go make the best 
one you can. It would be better if you had a saw, 
but you haven't. So with men. There is a point 
of course where a man must take his stand alone 
and break with all for a clear principle, but until 
it comes, he must work with men as they are." He 
had learned not only a lesson in politics, but in 
democracy as well. 

He showed his readiness more than once to sup- 
port Governor Cleveland, a Democrat. Once he 
supported the Governor when to do so he had to go 
against his own record. Even in those early days, 
Mr. Roosevelt was not overawed by wealth and 
corporate power and he voted to pass a bill reduc- 
ing the fare on the Elevated road in New York to five 
cents. The Governor vetoed the bill, in a message 
which convinced Mr. Roosevelt that to reduce the 
fare would be a violation of the contract between 
the state and the railroad. He promptly acknowl- 

45 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



edged that he had been wrong and that the Governor 
was right, but he gave the corporation small comfort, 
for in his speech he said he would sustain the veto be- 
cause he was bound by the law and not because of 
any consideration for "the infernal thieves" who man- 
aged the company, and he denounced Jay Gould 
and his partners as of "the wealthy criminal class." 

It was at this session that he heard the bitter cry 
of the crowded sweat shops of the city tenements. 
He went among them and their unfortunate dwellers 
and toilers and he told the Legislature what he 
had seen, with so much earnestness that a law was 
enacted in the direction of better conditions. 

On his third election he found himself again in 
a Republican Legislature. He became a candidate 
for Speaker and, before the session opened, he 
went all over the state in the interest of his can- 
didacy, seeing members in their homes. This 
directness was unusual in politics. Speakers were 
generally selected by powerful combinations which 
controlled the votes of the members. It was 
so in this instance. The men of power knew 
they could not trust Mr. Roosevelt to do their bid- 
ding, if elected to the chair, and their candidate won. 

46 



IN POLITICS 



Although defeated for Speaker, the young member 
from the 21st, now an old hand at the business of legis- 
lation, became the leader on the floor of the House 
and the most influential man of the session. As Chair- 
man of the important Committee on Cities, he inves- 
tigated the city government of New York. The 
"Roosevelt Committee," as it was called, created a 
good deal of a stir in the metropolis. One of the city 
officials on the stand testified that he could not remem- 
ber whether his campaign expenses were above or 
below $50,000. Another confessed that he was law- 
fully making $80,000 a year in his office. One direct 
result of the investigation was the stopping of all 
big salaries and fees under the city government. 

Mr. Roosevelt joined the eighth regiment of the 
New York National Guard and became a captain. 
One of his lieutenants declares that he was the 
frankest young militia officer he ever saw. "While 
Roosevelt was drilling us," says the former lieu- 
tenant, "he would sometimes burst out with the 
exclamation : 'Hold on there a minute !' Pulling his 
book of tactics out of his hip pocket and flying 
through its leaves, while the entire company stood 
and waited and watched, he would look up the 

47 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



points and then say : 'I made a mistake; this is the 
way to do it.' We simply couldn't laugh at a man 
who was as honest as that with us." 

The most notable success won by Mr. Roosevelt 
in those years was scored in the election of delegates 
to the Republican National Convention of 1884. 
Nothing else shows so well how much he had gained 
in political skill. His fight began in his own district, 
which he had carefully organized in the course of his 
three years as a candidate for the Legislature. In this 
organization, he was one of some twenty or thirty 
loyal, wide-awake young men from all walks of life. 

At the outset of his work in politics, he found some 
members of a political club to which he belonged, 
planning to blackball a man merely because he was 
a Jew. He jumped to his feet and roundly 
denounced them. He was plainly angry and he 
talked to them until they were ashamed of their 
purpose. When he sat down, the vote was taken. 
There was not a blackball and the man was not kept 
out because of his religion. This was then, as much 
as it is now, the Roosevelt spirit. "For myself," he 
has said, "I would work as quick beside Pat Dugan 
as with the last descendants of the Patroon." 

48 



IN POLITICS 



Among his fellow-workers in his district could be 
counted a Columbia professor, a former Columbia 
oarsman, an Irish quarryman, a master-carpenter, 
the proprietor of a small store, a rich young merchant, 
the editor of a little German newspaper, two office- 
holders, a member of a Jewish synagogue, the son of 
a noted Presbyterian clergyman, and a young Cath- 
olic lawyer. By such a true American union of 
citizens under Mr. Roosevelt's leadership his orga- 
nization controlled the district for years. It enabled 
him to defeat "Jake" Hess in 1884 and to go as a 
delegate to the state convention. There he and a few 
men like him, though greatly outnumbered, beat 
the old-timers in politics by a shrewd and daring 
movement and ran the convention. He was elected 
a Delegate-at-Large to the National Convention 
over a gray-haired United States Senator, and his 
fellow-delegates made him their chairman. 

Thus it happened, to the surprise of the entire 
country, that this young man of twenty-five entered 
the famous Chicago Convention at the head of the 
delegation from the Empire State. Theodore Roose- 
velt had become one of the central figures on the 
national stage. At the very opening session he 
e 49 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



was drawn into the contest over the selection of the 
temporary chairman of the convention. The na- 
tional committee, whose duty it was to call the con- 
vention, had proposed a man to preside over it. Mr. 
Roosevelt joined with those who rebelled against 
this choice and who wished to confer the honor on 
a negro delegate from Mississippi. 

In support of this motion, he made a stirring 
speech before the great assemblage in the con- 
vention hall, saying in conclusion, "It is now, 
Mr. Chairman, less than a quarter of a century 
since, in this city, the great Republican party, 
for the first time organized for victory, nominated 
Abraham Lincoln of Illinois, who broke the fetters 
of the slave and rent them asunder forever. It is 
fitting for us to choose to preside over this con- 
vention one of that race, whose right to sit within 
these walls is due to the blood and treasure so 
lavishly spent by the founders of the Republican 
party." The negro candidate was chosen, but Mr. 
Roosevelt lost the great battle of the convention 
when it nominated James G. Blaine for President. 

It was indeed a hard choice for him. He and his 
associates had opposed Mr. Blaine with so much 

5° 



IN POLITICS 



earnestness and on such grounds that it was impos- 
sible for them to support him in the campaign with 
any enthusiasm. Most of them left the Repub- 
lican party rather than vote for its new standard 
bearer, and, in the language of the time, became 
Mugwumps. Grover Cleveland had been nomi- 
nated by the Democrats, and the Mugwumps sup- 
ported him loyally. None of them knew Mr. Cleve- 
land better or perhaps more favorably than Mr. 
Roosevelt. But he believed that the future of the 
country, within his generation at least, would be in 
the keeping of the Republican party and he had no 
faith in Mr. Cleveland's party. 

After much anxious thought, he announced that 
he would vote the Republican ticket, although he 
did not attempt to take any active part in the cam- 
paign for Mr. Blaine. The Republicans were defeated 
in the election and Mr. Cleveland was elected, the 
first Democrat to be chosen President in twenty-four 
years. Mr. Roosevelt's Mugwump friends were 
jubilant. He retired from politics, not, however, to 
nurse his disappointment, but to open an entirely 
new chapter in his life. 



5i 



CHAPTER VI 

IN THE WILD WEST 



While a member of the Legislature, he responds to the call of the 
wilderness and goes buffalo hunting on the Plains. — A tender- 
foot who amazes the plainsmen by his hardihood. — He sees 
the Wild West in the golden age of its romance. — A vast em- 
pire of fenceless pastures. — The cowboy, the picturesque child 
of the great cattle country. — A typical cow town. — The young 
New Yorker falls in love with the desert and buys a ranch. 

Nature ever has been the favorite teacher of 
Theodore Roosevelt. Although he is a university 
graduate, although books always have been his 
constant companions, he has learned the greatest 
lessons of life, as Washington, Jackson, Lincoln, 
and most of the leaders of the nation learned them, 
from his contact with men and with the world in 
the rude school of experience. 

"One impulse from a vernal wood 
May teach you more of man, 
Of moral evil and of good, 
Than all the sages can." 

He had learned to know the birds and trees and 
flowers of Long Island in his boyhood and he had 

52 




Mr. Roosevelt as a Hunter in his Ranching Days 



IN THE WILD WEST 



delighted in the wilder life of the Adirondacks and 
of the Maine woods. In the strength of his man- 
hood, he longed for hardier exploits. He had been 
enthralled by James Fenimore Cooper's Leather- 
stocking Series. Deerslayer, with his long rifle, 
Jasper, Hurry Harry, Ishmael Bush, with his seven 
stalwart sons, were to him like personal friends. 
"I have bunked with them," he has said, "and eaten 
with them. They were mighty men and they did 
the work of their day and opened the way for ours." 

After leaving college, he joined the Meadowbrook 
Hunt Club and became a gallant rider to hounds. 
But the call of the wilderness came to him louder 
and louder. He wanted the real thing and could not 
be content with the fashionable imitation. The 
people of his mother's blood had battled with the 
southern wilds all the way down to the jungles of 
Florida. His younger brother, Elliott, had been on 
a great buffalo hunt in Texas and later had come 
back from India with the most distracting tales of 
his tiger hunting. 

Finally, between legislative sessions, Theodore 
surrendered to his impulses and started for the 
Wild West. He left the train in North Dakota at 

53 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



the little town of Medora. It was typical of that 
frontier. There were a few wretched shanties for 
the settlers and a number of low log buildings for 
the United States troops, who were there to guard 
the railroad builders from the Indians. On every 
side of this rude hamlet, the bare clay buttes, the 
term which the French pioneers had given to the 
big hills of that country, rose sheer several hundred 
feet from the level of the village and made the place 
seem all the more desolate. 

The young visitor from the East sought out two 
hunters and told them that he wished to go buffalo 
hunting with them. They were not sure about 
him. The average Eastern tenderfoot never cared 
for more than a little buckboard ride over the 
country to see some of its natural wonders. They 
doubted if this one knew just what he was bargain- 
ing for. Hunting the buffalo then was no fancy 
pastime, for the lordly bison was fast vanishing, 
and to hunt him required long trips away from 
human habitation. One of the guides has recalled 
that there was something in the "set of his jaw" 
which assured him that the stranger meant business. 

But could he stand it ? "He was a slender young 

54 



IN THE WILD WEST 



fellow," this man has said, "and I had my doubts 
whether he could hold out on a long trip. I ex- 
pected at least to have to take care of him, saddle his 
horse, see that he got his grub regularly, and all that 
sort of thing. I soon found I was mistaken in my 
man. He paddled his own canoe from the start-off." 

The test came the first night out. While the party 
was asleep, each member with his head on his saddle 
for a pillow and his horse tied by a rope to the saddle 
horn, a pack of howling wolves came up and the 
horses took fright. They ran wildly away, jerking 
the saddles from under the sleeping heads as they 
galloped off. The tenderfoot was up and after the 
runaways, as quickly as either of his guides, and he 
won the enthusiastic approval of his comrades on 
that hunt, taking the good and bad as it came and 
bearing his lot without grumbling. 

It was, in truth, a rare chance to see the Wild 
West in the last glow of its golden age. Soon it was 
all to vanish and pass into the most romantic chapter 
of American history. It was Mr. Roosevelt's good 
fortune to stand on a frontier that even now we can 
find only in books. Half a dozen years before he 
visited it in the upper Dakotas the Indians alone 

55 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



had possessed it. To-day it is lost in the great realm 
of civilization. He saw it, and the wild freedom of 
the vast desolation conquered him. 

It was surely the strangest land our race ever dwelt 
in, — that immense cattle country, whose fenceless 
pastures stretched from Mexico to British North 
America and embraced all or parts of New Mexico, 
Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Texas, Kansas, 
Nebraska, and North and South Dakota. At first 
it was set down in the geographies as a hopeless 
desert and afterward was believed to be fit for noth- 
ing but stock raising. 

It was all one great pasture in the day of Mr. 
Roosevelt's buffalo hunt, and the branding iron took 
the place of fences. There was little rain, and only 
short, wiry grass would grow on the parched land. 
Trees found no place where they could take root 
except in the very beds of streams, which were dry 
most of the time. The earth leaped up into steep, 
barren hills or tumbled into deep valleys. No 
scenery could be more monotonous, no solitude 
more dreary. 

Yet the cow country held its scattered dwellers 
in its spell quite as much as the sea holds those who 

56 



IN THE WILD WEST 



follow it. Most of the people of the plains came from 
the South and the middle West. But it lured the 
adventurer from the East and from all lands and 
from all conditions of life. The college-bred from 
the older states, and the younger sons of European 
nobles were in the mass of ranchmen and rustlers, 
half-breeds, and greasers. 

There was a French nobleman at Medora, the 
Marquis de Mores, and the town took its name from 
the marchioness. The proprietors of the herds lived 
like Arab sheiks, each with his own brand, which all 
honest men respected. These cattle barons seldom 
owned more than a small part of the range over 
which their beasts grazed, most of it being "free 
grass" on United States land not yet surveyed. 
When their branding irons had burned the sign of 
their ownership on hip, shoulder, or side of a four- 
legged creature, any one imitating or ignoring the 
brand was severely punished. Any unbranded cat- 
tle belonged to him who would affix his brand to 
them. 

The cowboys might on occasion become the terror 
of a town, but it must be said that as a rule they were 
careful of property rights. They hated thieves and 

57 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



rowdyish loafers and would kill them as readily as 
they would kill a snake. The cowboy was a most 
picturesque figure. As he sat free on his little pony, 
his knees hardly bent for his long stirrups, the keen 
eyes in his wind-tanned face searching the horizon, 
he was a fit subject for the art of the sculptor. On 
his legs he wore leathern overalls, big revolvers peeped 
out from under his belt, and a brilliant silk handker- 
chief was wound about his neck, while a broad- 
brimmed hat was tilted on his head and big spurs 
jingled at his heels. He was as simple and free 
from guile as a child, but as proud as a lord. 

His pay usually was $40 a month and the only use 
he had for a town was to spend his money in it. 
Mr. Roosevelt in one of his books of the Wild West 
has drawn a moving picture of such a town in Miles 
City, a typical cow town, thronged at times with 
ranch owners and cowboys, hunters from the Plains, 
trappers from the mountains in buckskin shirts, 
stage drivers vain of their fame, blanketed Indians, 
miners, gamblers, horse thieves, desperadoes, and 
every kind of " bad men." 

It was the lonely and pathless plains that thrilled 
Mr. Roosevelt with a new joy and opened up to him 

58 



IN THE WILD WEST 



a new life. In "The Wilderness Hunter," he has 
described the feelings of a man who, like himself, 
has been brought within the strange charm of that 
boundless world: "In after years there shall come 
forever to his mind the memory of endless prairies 
shimmering in the bright sun; of vast snow-clad 
wastes, lying desolate under gray skies; of the 
melancholy marshes; of the rush of mighty rivers; 
of the breath of the evergreen forest in summer; 
I of the crooning of ice-armored pines at the touch of 
the winds of winter; of cataracts roaring between 
hoary mountain passes; of all the innumerable 
sights and sounds of the wilderness and of the 
silences that brood in its still depths." 

Before his first visit was at an end, he had become 
a ranchman. He had listened, with increasing in- 
terest, to the gossip of his two hunting companions 
about ranches and ranching. One night he asked 
them how much money it would take to go into the 
business. They told him it would spoil the looks of 
$45,000. Then he asked how much of that sum 
would need to be in cash, and they answered that 
$10,000 would be enough. In this talk they had in 
mind a particular place, the Chimney Butte ranch. 

59 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



The next morning he informed the plainsmen that 
he had resolved to own a ranch and that he was ready 
to draw a check for the first payment of $10,000. 

This was a characteristic thing for him to do, to 
push the transaction to a conclusion while his im- 
pulse was warm and to pick these men without 
references, solely on the strength of his own experi- 
ence with them. 






60 



CHAPTER VII 

AS A RANCHMAN 



He turns from domestic sorrows and political reverses, in 1884, 
to a new life in the solitude of the great cattle country. — Bill 
Sewall joins him at Elkhorn Ranch on the Little Missouri. — 
His immense herds. — Hard work on the round-up. — In the 
saddle for twenty-four hours. — Sleeping in the snow. — 
Fighting the prairie fires. — Bronco busting. — The long battle 
for health completely won. 

Ranch life began in earnest for Mr. Roosevelt 
with his political disappointments in 1884. 

A far deeper shadow was cast over his life by 
domestic sorrows in that year. In February, his 
mother died and two days afterward his wife passed 
from life as her daughter entered it. By this double 
blow, he lost his new home and his old. He turned 
to his public duties with added zeal. When, how- 
ever, the faction which he opposed gained control 
in the Chicago convention, and under its leadership 
his party rushed to defeat at the polls, he faced west- 
ward and eagerly welcomed toil and solitude on the 
distant banks of the Little Missouri. 

Ranching became his business rather than his 

61 



= 

THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

pastime and he entered upon the rugged life of the 
plainsman. He sent for his old friend of the Maine 
woods, Bill Sewall, and they went to work together. 
While keeping his ranch at Chimney Butte, a few 
miles below Medora, he set up another, many miles 
above that town. There, on a blufF above the 
Little Missouri, where he found the skulls and inter- 
locked antlers of two big, round-horned elk, who had 
fought until they perished, he built him a log house 
and called the place Elkhorn Ranch. 

In front of his veranda there was a line of cotton- 
wood trees, which shaded it from the burning sun, 
and a few feet beyond, the shrunken river flowed. 
Deer would stare through a little cottonwood grove 
at night and the noises of many wild things broke 
the stillness. He raised his chickens and eggs, pro- 
duced the milk and butter for his table, and grew 
potatoes enough for his needs, and sometimes other 
vegetables, when the drought, the frost, or the grass- 
hopper did not prevent. He and his men got their 
meat with their guns. They cut the firewood and 
dug the coal for Elkhorn on his ranch. He increased 
his herds until thousands of head of cattle bore his 
brand of the Maltese cross. 

62 



AS A RANCHMAN 



These cattle of the cow country were driven up 
over the trails from Texas in immense numbers, 
and were fattened for the market on the rich grasses 
of the Dakotas, as in earlier times they had fattened 
on the virgin prairies of Illinois and Iowa. No 
fences confined them to their owner's range. Wher- 
ever they roamed his brand protected his ownership. 
Sometimes they would wander for hundreds of miles 
and not be captured for a year or more. Twice a 
year Mr. Roosevelt, as the custom was, would round 
up all the Maltese herds for the purpose of branding 
the calves that had been born since the last round- 
up and for the purpose of "cutting out" all the 
cattle fat enough to be shipped to market. 

On these round-ups Mr. Roosevelt himself has 
done his share of the hard work. Each day the 
wagon, carrying the food for the men, would move 
to a new point, and thither the cowboys would drive 
in all the cattle they could find. Often this meant 
a fifty-mile ride in a morning. Many herds would 
be driven in at noon and into one big band. In the 
afternoon, the work of branding and selecting would 
be done, and then all, except those held for ship- 
ment, would be loosed till the next round-up several 

63 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



months off. The beeves, retained for the market, 
would be driven along with the wagon, day by day, 
and at night each cowboy must stand his watch 
over them for two hours. 

A stampede was always to be feared, and at every 
sign of uneasiness in the herds, the cowboys would 
try to quiet the beasts by singing to them. Mr. 
Roosevelt tells in his books of perilous times with his 
herds, when furious storms raged and panic seized 
upon the huddled mass of steers. In such emergen- 
cies he has kept to his saddle for twenty-four hours at 
a stretch, only dismounting long enough to get a 
fresh pony or to snatch a mouthful of food. He made 
it his business to endure the hardships as well as to 
enjoy the pleasures of ranching, and on the round-up 
he has slept out in the snow, wrapped in blankets 
and tarpaulins, but with no tent to shield him from 
the freezing cold. 

Prairie fires were among the terrors of ranch life. 
Mr. Roosevelt has told how he helped to fight one 
of those conflagrations in the cattle country. The 
wind had lulled at sunset and the fire, which lit up 
the night with a great reddish glow, was burning in 
a long, wavy line, when he and his men shot a steer 

64 



AS A RANCHMAN 



and opened its carcass. He and another man then 
mounted their horses and started on opposite sides 
of the line of fire, with the beef lying flat on the 
earth between them, bloody side down. Thus they 
dragged it along by ropes reaching from its legs to 
their saddle horns. One of the horsemen spurred 
his horse over the burning grass while the other rode 
on the unburned ground, and the weight of the blood 
smothered the flames as the beef was twitched over 
them, while two men following on foot beat out what- 
ever fire was left with slickers and wet saddle blankets. 
It was not easy for Mr. Roosevelt and his com- 
panion to manage their almost crazed horses and 
keep the carcass on the line. The man on the burn- 
ing side had to run the risk of a scorching. The 
horses bucked and bolted and the ropes cut into 
the thighs of the riders. Down they would plunge 
into a black ravine, which broke the line of fire, 
stumbling, sliding, and pitching into holes and bushes, 
the carcass sometimes catching on a stump; and 
then up they would leap into the blinding glare of 
the flames on the other side. When at last the fire 
was turned, the fighters would sink down, too tired 
to think of washing their blackened faces. 
f 65 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



After only a little experience in ranching, Mr. 
Roosevelt learned to sit in his saddle and ride his 
horse like a life-long plainsman. But he never has 
pretended to any special fondness for a bucking 
bronco, and a story is told of a trick played on him 
by some friendly persons in Medora. He was in 
town waiting for a train that was to bring a guest 
from the East. While he was in a store, the jokers 
placed his saddle on a notoriously vicious beast which 
they substituted for Mr. Roosevelt's mount. When 
he came out, in haste to ride around to the railway 
station, he did not detect the deception. 

Once he was on the horse's back, he was made in- 
stantly aware of the change. The bronco bucked 
and whirled, to the amusement of the grinning 
villagers. But to their amazement, the young 
ranchman succeeded in staying on him and spurring 
him into a run. Away they flew to the prairies and 
soon back they raced in a cloud of dust and through 
the town. The friend from the East arrived and 
joined the spectators, who waited to see if the young 
squire of Elkhorn ever would return. In a little 
while he was seen coming along the road at a gentle 
gait, and when he reached his starting point, he 

66 



AS A RANCHMAN 



dismounted with a smile of quiet mastery from as 
meek a creature as ever stood on four legs. 

He had no use, however, for a horse whose spirit 
ran altogether to ugliness. When he first went 
West, he doubted the theory of the natives that any 
horse was hopelessly bad. For instance, there was 
one in the sod-roofed log stable of Elkhorn who had 
been labelled "The Devil." Mr. Roosevelt believed 
that gentleness would overcome Devil. The boys 
thought it might if he should live to be seventy-five. 
After much patient wooing, Devil actually let Mr. 
Roosevelt lay his hand on him and pat him. The 
boys began to think that possibly there was some- 
thing in this new plan of bronco busting. 

One day, however, when his gentle trainer made 
bold to saddle and mount him, Devil quickly drew 
his four hoofs together, leaped into the air and came 
down with a jerk and a thud. Then he finished 
with a few fancy curves that landed his disillusioned 
rider a good many yards in front of him. Mr. 
Roosevelt sprang to his feet and on to the back of 
the animal. Four times he was thrown, and one of 
the onlookers has vowed that sometimes he could 
see twelve acres of land between him and the saddle. 

67 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



Finally the determined rider manoeuvred Devil out 
on to a quicksand, where bucking is impossible, and 
when at last he was driven back to solid earth he 
was like a lamb. 

In this rough life of the range the young ranch- 
man conquered forever the physical weaknesses of 
his youth and put on that rude strength which has 
enabled him to stand before the world, a model of 
vigorous manhood. 



68 



CHAPTER VIII 

LIFE ON THE PLAINS 



The young master of Elkhorn Ranch wins the respect of the 
honest plainsmen by his Rooseveltian frankness. — No use 
for "bad men." — Knocking down a bar-room rowdy who 
commanded the Easterner to treat the crowd. — Calling down 
a notorious shooting man. — Teaching a French Marquis a 
new code of honor. Plain speaking to a corrupt sheriff. — 
Pursuing horse-thieves a hundred and fifty miles and landing 
them in jail. — Fourth of July oration. — Hunting and writing 
his two pastimes. 

The young master of Elkhorn Ranch, brave, 
outspoken, and always ready to bear his full share 
of toil and hardship, was not long in winning the 
respect and hearty good-will of the bluff, honest 
men of the Bad Lands. They forgave him his 
Murray Hill breeding, his Harvard English, his 
gold-rimmed eye-glasses and his fringed Angora 
"chaps," or riding overalls, when they saw that he 
asked no favor, shirked no labor, and ran from no 
danger. They, the real plainsmen, had no more 
use than he for braggarts and brawlers, and he never 
hesitated to show his contempt for the swaggering 
"bad men" of his region. 

69 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



While he was yet a stranger in the cattle lands 
the chance was thrust upon him to let it be known 
that he could not be bullied. It was in a tavern, 
where he was obliged to stay over night, and where 
the bar-room was the only lounging place. A noisy 
loafer, with pistols sticking out from under his belt, 
and breathing slaughter, picked on the quiet, blue- 
eyed Easterner as the butt of his rough jests. As 
Mr. Roosevelt did not resent his talk, the bully finally 
made bold to order him to step up to the bar and 
treat the crowd to drinks. Mr. Roosevelt seemed 
not to object even to this form of insult and he came 
forward as if meekly to obey the command. 

No one could know that as he crossed the room 
the stranger was studying a good old Harvard left 
hander, which, in another second, knocked the big 
ruffian flat on the floor. The pistol, which the fellow 
fired when, too late, he saw what was coming, went 
off harmlessly in the air. He looked up into the face 
of the "four-eyed tenderfoot," as the latter stood 
over him, ready to knock him down again, and there 
was a sickly grin on the once terrible countenance of 
this sadder but wiser "bad man." When he had 
handed up his "shooting irons," he was permitted 

70 



LIFE ON THE PLAINS 



to rise and disappear from the scene of his humilia- 
tion, where all the spectators assured Mr. Roosevelt 
that he had "served him right." 

Because he found himself in a community where 
many were supposed to go about with their fingers 
on the triggers of their " guns," Mr. Roosevelt did 
not seem to change his habits of plain speaking. The 
older inhabitants of the Plains were amazed more 
than once by the frankness with which he stood up 
to men with several notches on the handles of their 
revolvers. The editor of The Bad Lands Cowboy 
has told of a scene of this kind which took place in 
his office, where Mr. Roosevelt used to drop in and 
gossip with his widely scattered neighbors. He had 
listened with manifest disgust to the low talk of one 
of the most noted "bad men" in the country, on the 
occasion which the editor has recalled. 

Mr. Roosevelt knew that this man had well earned 
his repute for badness and was always ready to shoot 
up things on the least provocation. Nevertheless, 
when he was thoroughly tired of the fellow's tales, 
it did not occur to him to be afraid to say so. On 
the contrary, he looked him straight in the eye and, 
speaking in a low voice and "skinning his teeth," 

7i 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



said: "Jim, I like you; but you are the nastiest- 
talking man I ever heard." This candor took the 
breath away from the men who were sitting around 
the office, and every eye was on Jim's right hand to 
see if he would pull his " gun." Instead of that, they 
saw a sheepish look come into his hard face and 
heard him say, in a tone of apology: "I don't be- 
long to your outfit, Mr. Roosevelt, and I am not 
beholden to you for anything. All the same, I don't 
mind saying that mebbe I've been a little too free 
with my mouth." Jim knew that he had been told 
the truth for once, and without fear and without 
malice. He always remembered it to the credit of 
the man who had dared to speak what he thought, 
and remained a loyal friend of Mr. Roosevelt. 

This Rooseveltian directness was just what the 
Wild West most liked in him, and, instead of mak- 
ing trouble for him, it saved him trouble on more 
than one occasion. Once it prevented a duel. The 
Marquis de Mores, the French adventurer, who 
had come to the Bad Lands a little ahead of Mr. 
Roosevelt and who, besides starting a big ranch, had 
erected immense abattoirs and refrigerators at 
Medora, was ambitious to be the lord of the land. 

72 



LIFE ON THE PLAINS 



This ambition brought him into conflict, from time 
to time, with his independent neighbors. 

He found offence once in a report that came to 
him of Mr. Roosevelt's conduct, and he sent him a 
note, saying, "There is a way for gentlemen to 
settle their difficulties." Mr. Roosevelt of course 
understood the meaning of this language in the 
duelling code. But he ignored the challenge, be- 
cause he was not a duellist. He promptly wrote 
to the Marquis that the report was a lie and that a 
gentleman had no right to believe such a thing with- 
out evidence. Moreover, he informed him that 
within an hour he would follow this note in person. 
When Mr. Roosevelt rode upon the ranch of the 
French nobleman, some ten or fifteen miles from 
Elkhorn, a courier met him with the Marquis' 
apology and an urgent invitation to dinner. By 
this simple method of "settling difficulties between 
gentlemen" no one was killed or scratched and the 
old-fashioned aristocrat was instructed in a more 
modern code of honor. 

Mr. Roosevelt carried his frankness even to the 
point of telling a sheriff, whom he believed to be 
corrupt and worthless, just what he thought of him 

73 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



as a public official. Too often the men of the Wild 
West had to take the law into their own hands 
in order to protect themselves. One committee of 
vigilantes shot or hanged nearly sixty outlaws. Mr. 
Roosevelt believed in order on the Plains quite as 
much as in New York, and, when occasion offered, 
he did his part toward suppressing disorder out there. 

Once, on returning to his ranch, he found that 
some horse-thieves, in making their escape, had 
taken his boat. They felt sure that this would make 
them safe from pursuit because there was no other 
boat. Bill Sewall, however, built a rude craft in 
great haste, and on this he and Mr. Roosevelt and 
another man started down the Little Missouri. 
They floated probably for one hundred and fifty 
miles before they saw the camp of the fugitives. 

Mr. Roosevelt, unseen, stole ashore and upon 
the camp. When near enough he cried, with his 
weapon pointed, "Hands up, or I will shoot!" 
The only man about the place was asleep, so it 
chanced, and, thus rudely awakened, he was in great 
alarm. He rolled over and over on the ground, in 
his anxiety not to be shot. He proved to be no 
more than a poor tool of the robbers and could 

74 



LIFE ON THE PLAINS 



hardly make himself understood in English. The 
thieves, two in number, made their appearance 
towards dark. They were in the stolen boat. Mr. 
Roosevelt and one of his men crept down by the 
river, where they sprang from their hiding as the 
outlaws drew near and covered them with their 
guns. There was nothing for the men in the boat 
to do but to throw up their hands and surrender. 

Nearly a week was required to take the captives 
to the county seat, a distance of two hundred miles. 
The boats stuck in ice-jams and were almost upset. 
Each night a fire was built on the river bank and 
the two culprits were compelled to lie on opposite 
sides of it, while Mr. Roosevelt sat on watch until 
midnight and the rest of the night was divided 
between his two assistants. 

Any one who knows the spirit of the Plains in the 
primitive days does not need to be told that examples 
like these of pluck and frankness made Mr. Roose- 
velt a great favorite. For twenty years and more, 
the men of the Bad Lands have sworn by his name. 
They were proud to have him as their Fourth of July 
orator at Dickinson, the county seat, in his ranching 
days, and his friendships were made among all 

75 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



sorts and conditions of people. He has set down I 
in his books such striking names of friends as Dutch 
Wannigan, Windy Jack, and Kid Williams. 

For more than twelve years he kept Elkhorn Ranch, 
and his love of the grim and boundless plains of the 1 
cattle country grew deep. He hunted all over it 
and the Rockies beyond. Sometimes he would take 
his rifle and go off" alone for three or four days, with 
only a slicker, or waterproof coat, behind the saddle, 
and some salt and hardtack as his sole provisions. 

Once it chanced that he had no water to drink 
for twenty-four hours, and then he must slake his 
thirst in a muddy pool. There were times when he 
had to work so steadily through the day that his 
only opportunity to hunt came at night, and then 
he has been known to come in, pick up his gun and 
hasten away without losing time for supper. If too 
tired from the day's labors to stalk in the evening, i 
he could rock on the veranda, listening to the sounds 
of wild nature, or gaze at a far-off" chain of buttes, 
fantastically outlined in the moonlight, or if the 
weather was cool, throw himself at full length on the 
elk-hides and wolf-skins before the open fire. 

The wild, harsh sounds of the wilderness became 

7 6 



LIFE ON THE PLAINS 



music to his ears; "the guttural booming and cluck- 
ing of the prairie fowl and the great sage fowl in 
spring," are among the notes he has described in 
his books, and "the honking of gangs of wild geese, 
j as they fly in rapid wedges; the bark of an eagle, 
wheeling in the shadow of storm-scarred cliffs; or 
the far-off clanging of many sand-hill cranes, soaring 
high overhead in circles, which cross and recross at 
an incredible altitude. Wilder yet and stranger are 
the cries of the great four-footed beasts ; the rhyth- 
mic pealing of a bull elk's challenge, and that most 
sinister and mournful sound, ever fraught with fore- 
boding of murder and rapine, the long-drawn bay- 
ing of the gray wolf." 

While most of his Wild West days were given to 
action, Mr. Roosevelt never was without his books. 
Even when he went forth with nothing but hard- 
tack to eat and nothing but his buffalo bag in which 
to sleep, he was likely to find a place somewhere for 
a book or two. Moreover, his best writing was 
inspired by the Plains. In the quiet times on the 
ranch he wrote, at first for the magazines, stories of 
his legislative experiences and of his ranching and 
hunting. In that period, too, he wrote the "Life 

77 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



of Thomas Hart Benton," the first statesman from 
beyond the Mississippi; and the most important 
contribution he has made to historical literature, 
"The Winning of the West," was an inspiration of 
the Dakota plains. 



78 




Theodore Roosevelt 



CHAPTER IX 

REENTERS POLITICS 



Called from his ranch to be a candidate for mayor of New York 
in the fall of 1886. — Defeated, but satisfied with his lively cam- 
paign. — December 2, 1886, marries Miss Edith Kermit Carow 
in London. — The bride and groom friends from childhood. — 
Her English and American ancestors. — On the stump for Har- 
rison in 1888. — Appointed on the National Civil Service 
Commission, May, 1889. — A fighting member, he has pitched 
battles with postmasters and collectors, representatives and 
senators, and even a Cabinet officer. 

Beside the open fire at Elkhorn, Mr. Roosevelt 
read in a New York newspaper that he had been 
nominated for mayor of the great metropolis by the 
Independents. That was in the fall of 1886. He 
accepted the recall to public duty and started at once 
for the East. His own party gave him its nomination 
and he stood as the Republican candidate for the 
chief magistracy of New York. 

There was small hope of success at the polls in a 
constituency so strongly Democratic. Neverthe- 
less, he went in as if he meant to win, and soon the 
ranchman from the Bad Lands was going from ward 

79 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



to ward of the city, speaking in halls and in 
the streets. 

When the expected defeat came, Mr. Roosevelt, 
free from disappointment and satisfied with the 
lively canvass which he had made, sailed for Eng- 
land. There, shortly after his arrival, he led to the 
marriage altar Miss Edith Kermit Carow. The 
ceremony was in famous St. George's Church, 
Hanover Square, London, and it was performed 
by a canon of the English Church, who was a cousin 
of the bride. 

Although she is an American and a New Yorker, 
Mrs. Roosevelt's great-grandfather, Benjamin Lee, 
was an Englishman who served in the British navy 
in the war of the American Revolution. For dis- 
obeying orders, which he thought were unjust to 
prisoners in his care, he was sentenced to be shot, 
and his life was saved only by the intercession of a 
fellow-officer, who afterward was known as Will- 
iam IV., the sailor king of Great Britain. Lee 
came to America and rose to be a captain in the navy 
of the United States. 

Another great-grandfather of Mr. Roosevelt's 
bride fought under General Putnam at Bunker Hill. 

80 



REENTERS POLITICS 



Mrs. Roosevelt also may trace descent to the family 
of Jonathan Edwards, the celebrated divine. The 
name Carow was originally Quereau and was borne 
by a family of French Huguenots, who settled in New 
York about the time that the Roosevelts came from 
Holland. 

Mr. Roosevelt had known Edith Kermit Carow 
from his early boyhood. Her home was not far 
away in Union Square and she and his sister Corinne 
were schoolmates. She was a cultivated young 
woman, who had travelled a good deal. At the time 
Df their marriage, she was twenty-five and he had 
lately passed his twenty-eighth birthday. All who 
knew them and their sympathetic tastes foretold 
he happiness which has attended their union. 
After a stay in Europe, lasting several months, 
Mr. Roosevelt returned to New York, where he 
[ook up his literary work and renewed his political 
onnections. 

The bosses had no more use for him now than in 
earlier years. They would not think of giving him 
i chance to get into any position where his inde- 
Dendence would make trouble for them. When 
hey were distributing honors, nominating members 
g 81 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



of Congress or sending delegates to conventions, 
they carefully ignored him. 

A celebration of a reform victory in the politics 
of the city of Brooklyn gave Mr. Roosevelt a chance 
to do a characteristic thing. He told the jubilant 
reformers a little story of how a man of their city, 
who had stood for reform, had been neglected by 
them. This man was Peter Kelley, a Democrat, who 
had been a member of the Legislature with him and 
who had taken his stand for the right so boldly at 
Albany that the bosses had barred him from office 
and from all chances to get ahead. 

Kelley's health had failed, but Mr. Roosevelt did 
not, of course, tell how he had personally looked after 
his welfare and helped to keep him from actual want. 
He did tell his audience, however, that the people, 
in whose cause Kelley made his sacrifice, had forgot- 
ten him, and, addressing the newly elected officials, 
told them that they owed it to good government to 
seek out this martyr in their city and honor him. 
When he sat down, many of them came to him, 
and the mayor said he would hunt up the man at 
once. The next day Mr. Roosevelt received a letter 
from the mayor, saying: "At nine o'clock last night 

82 



REENTERS POLITICS 



I told you I had a place for Peter Kelley. He died 
at eleven." 

Mr. Roosevelt still owned Elkhorn Ranch, and for 
several years more he passed most of his vacations on 
the Plains. His active ranching days, however, were 
over. The time had come for him to settle down as 
a man of family and to give to the public service 
some of that vigor which he had gained in the Wild 
West. 

He went on the stump for General Harrison in 
the presidential campaign of 1888, and when the 
newly elected President was forming his adminis- 
tration, he offered his services. He hoped to be 
appointed Assistant Secretary of State. But Mr. 
Blaine, who had been made chief of that department, 
objected to the young anti-Blaine leader in the 
Chicago convention of 1884, an d President Harrison 
tendered him a place on the Civil Service Com- 
mission, which he accepted. No politician cared 
for this thankless task. But he moved to Wash- 
ington and entered upon his duties with character- 
istic energy. 

The Commission was in small favor. It had been 
established only a few years, its work was little un- 

83 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



derstood, and some of its opponents still hoped that 
it would be abandoned and the old patronage sys- 
tem restored. Under that system, the tens of thou- 
sands of government employees, from highest to lowest, 
clerks, letter-carriers, and every kind of public servant, 
were chosen by favor and were in constant peril of 
losing their places to newer and stronger favorites. 
No one could get the smallest appointment unless he 
was a member of the party in power and had influ- 
ence with some leader in politics. At each election, 
every office-holder, from scrub-woman up, was 
assessed a certain portion of the salary received, for 
the benefit of the campaign fund. 

Mr. Roosevelt was one of the chief enemies of the 
patronage or spoils system. As a lover of fair play he 
hated it, and he was the author of the first law which 
sought to abolish it in New York. He took up the 
work of the new system in Washington with such 
zeal that he soon drew the fire of all its opponents. 
He was never the head of the Commission, but, 
while he remained on it, he was the favorite target 
for all the criticism which its work incurred. It was 
looked upon by every one as a Roosevelt commission. 

The duty of the commissioners was to see that the 

8 4 



REENTERS POLITICS 



civil service law was enforced throughout all the 
departments, regardless of the unfriendliness of many 
of the department chiefs and congressmen and 
senators. Certain rules prescribed the methods of 
selecting government employees by competitive ex- 
aminations, fairly conducted and open to all. There 
was a constant struggle all over the country to evade 
these rules, and to slip in political favorites without 
examinations. This gave Commissioner Roosevelt 
plenty of fighting to his taste. He had pitched bat- 
tles with influential postmasters and collectors in 
various parts of the country, with powerful con- 
gressmen and senators and with at least one member 
of the President's Cabinet itself. 

In a magazine article he sketched the kind of per- 
sistent warfare that he was called on to wage: 
"There is a certain order of intellect — sometimes 
an order of senatorial intellect — which thinks it 
funny to state that a first-class young man, thoroughly 
qualified in every respect, has been rejected for the 
position of letter-carrier, because he was unable to 
tell the distance from Hong Kong to the mouth of 
the Yangtsekiang, or answer questions of a similar 
nature. A senator, for instance, makes statements 

85 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



of this character. I then write to him and ask him 
his foundation for such an assertion. Presumably 
he never receives my letter, for he never answers it. 
I write him again with no better results. I then 
publish a contradiction in the newspapers. Then 
some enterprising correspondent interviews him and 
he states the question is true, but it is beneath his 
dignity to reply to Mr. Roosevelt." 

While Mr. Roosevelt was a member, the Com- 
mission adopted many common-sense measures 
aimed to bring public employment within reach of 
the people of all sections and of all parties. It began 
the custom of holding examinations all over the 
country for clerkships in Washington. Then, when 
a large number of members of Congress voted against 
a proper appropriation for the expenses of the Com- 
mission, Mr. Roosevelt cured them of their hostility 
by discontinuing the examinations in the districts 
from which they came. He argued that if the Com- 
mission was not to have enough money, it was only 
fair to spend what it had on the districts whose 
representatives had shown by their vote that they 
desired the service. 

Southern members, being Democrats, and not of 

86 



REENTERS POLITICS 



the party in power, were generally suspicious of the 
Commission. Mr. Roosevelt assembled the cor- 
respondents of the Southern press, and, through 
them, said to the people of that section: "This is 
an institution not for Republicans and not for 
Democrats, but for the whole American people. 
It belongs to them and will be administered as long 
as I stay here in their interest without discrimina- 
tion." The young men of the South responded to 
this open invitation and began to take the examina- 
tions and receive appointments, all of which had the 
effect on public opinion which Mr. Roosevelt had 
sought. The Southern people knew his national 
reputation for saying what he meant and they took 
him at his word. 

When an independent mayor was chosen in New 
York, Mr. Roosevelt was anxious to have a hand 
in the government of his native city. At first he 
was offered the place of Street Cleaning Commis- 
sioner. He thought he had no special fitness for 
the work of that department and declined the 
appointment. Then he was appointed President of 
the Board of Police Commissioners, an office which 
he accepted with enthusiasm. 

87 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



He had been six years on the Civil Service Com- 
mission at Washington and naturally felt that he 
had done all that he could in that work. He had seen 
the service greatly extended and had done more 
than any other man to make the system understood 
and appreciated by the people at large. 

Incidentally, he had gained a close insight into 
the organization and operation of the entire execu- 
tive department of the national government, a rare 
experience which would serve him well in due time. 



CHAPTER X 

AT THE HEAD OF THE NEW YORK POLICE 



President of the New York Police Commission, under Mayor 
Strong, from May, 1895, to April, 1897. — Wrestling with one 
of the most corrupt bodies in the world. — Stopping blackmail 
and political influence. — Loafing patrolmen surprised by the 
Commissioner at all hours of the night and in all sections of the 
city. — Enforcing the Sunday liquor law. — Turns German 
jeers into cheers. — Praise from the saloon-keepers. — The 
boon to the poor of the East Side from closing saloons on Sun- 
day. — Seizing unfit tenement houses. — Protecting an anti- 
Jewish agitator with Jewish policemen. 

As president of the New York Police Board, Mr. 
Roosevelt was only one of four members. He went 
to work with such vigor, however that the public 
held him responsible for the entire Commission. The 
mayor himself was overshadowed. National at- 
tention was drawn to a merely local office, and the 
press of the country discussed this police com- 
missioner and his running fight for law and order in 
the metropolis, as a subject of general interest. 

A Washington newspaper correspondent, de- 
scribing his call at the office of the Commission in 
Mulberry Street, wrote: "Theodore Roosevelt is 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



the biggest man in New York to-day. I saw a 
steady stream of men going up and down stairs, 
which led to the second floor of the police head- 
quarters. It was the crowd which moves in and out 
of Mr. Roosevelt's rooms all day long. He has more 
callers than the President of the United States." 

Mr. Roosevelt was, in fact, the commander of a 
little army in the field, an army charged with the 
duty of battling with the swarming enemies of the 
peace in a great city. This army had its scouts, 
or detectives, its patrolling sentries, its mounted 
cavalry, even its naval squadron in the waters sur- 
rounding the island of Manhattan, and its lieu- 
tenants and captains. Unfortunately there were 
traitors in the ranks. A committee of the Legisla- 
ture had only lately investigated it, and the people all 
over the land were shocked by the stories which it 
brought out, stories of officers and privates in league 
with all kinds of law-breakers. 

Men to whom the city had looked for protection 
were shown to be partners with thieves, gamblers, 
and disorderly persons, who were allowed to prey 
upon the city and who divided their plunder with 
the police. For this, more than for all else, the voters 

90 



AT THE HEAD OF THE NEW YORK POLICE 

had turned Tammany Hall out of power and elected 
the new city government under which Mr. Roosevelt 
had taken service. 

His first purpose was to establish order and hon- 
esty in the police force. He found that most of the 
men wished to do right. But all were demoralized 
by the conditions under which they worked. There 
had been a regular and well-known price for pro- 
motions. A man could not be appointed a police- 
man until he had paid from $200 to $300, and to be 
promoted to a captaincy cost as high as $12,000 
to $15,000. To get their money back they had to 
blackmail the lawless elements in the population. 

Mr. Roosevelt instantly stopped the system of 
paying for promotions. He punished the guilty 
members of the force without fear or favor and 
advanced the deserving without regard to outside 
influence. No amount of political pressure could 
make him spare the corrupt or reward the unworthy. 

It was not long before the suspicion and even the 
hatred with which the police had viewed him in the 
beginning turned to confidence and even affection 
among the well-meaning patrolmen. They saw that 
at last every man had a show on his own merits. 

9 1 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 






Intrigue was at an end. The new man at head 
quarters did not care anything about their politics 
or race or religion, or give the snap of his finger for 
aldermen and political leaders. Any one of the] 
thousands under him could walk into his office and] 
be heard. The policeman without a powerful 
friend and with only a clean record to speak for him, 1 
at last stood some chance against those who relied j 
on political pull. 

A deed of daring would bring a medal or perhaps 
a promotion. An old veteran on the water front 
saved a life by plunging into the icy harbor. The 
Commissioner looked him up and found that in all 
he had saved twenty-eight lives and never had re- 
ceived a word of praise. On the contrary, he had 
frequently ruined his uniform and been obliged to 
buy a new one. It was at once made a rule of the 
department that any man risking his life for another 
and spoiling his clothes should be clothed anew at 
the expense of the city. 

Mr. Roosevelt was not a mere desk official. He 
went forth to see for himself how his men were doing 
their duty. He appeared unexpectedly in all kinds 
of places and at all kinds of hours. At first he had 

92 



IT THE HEAD OF THE NEW YORK POLICE 

fome very amusing experiences with surprised police- 
!nen. 

A patrolman, sitting on a box with a companion in 
i poor part of the East Side at 2.30 one morning, 
vas startled by a man whirling upon him from around 
:he corner and snapping out, "Patrolman, are you 
doing your duty on post 27 ?" Then he was gone as 
quickly as he came, the astounded patrolman run- 
ning after him, and stammering his excuses. "That 
will do," Mr. Roosevelt said. "You are following 
be off post. Go back to your beat, now, and report 
at headquarters at 9.30 in the morning." 

On another night investigation a roundsman was 
come upon, gossiping with two patrolmen, whom 
he was charged to oversee. 

"Which of you men belong here ?" the unheralded 
visitor demanded. 

"What business is that of yours ?" was the insolent 
reply. 

"Which of you is covering beat 31 ?" the inquiring 
stranger persisted. He had turned and the rays 
of the gas at the corner now lighted his face. Then 
all three recognized him and tried to speak at once, 
while he hurried on, with the parting command: 

93 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



"You may call on me at 9.30 in the morning. I 
haven't time to listen to you now." 

These midnight visits, which led some wit to call 
him Haroun al Roosevelt, spread a wholesome- 
terror among the neglectful. The police began to} 1 
look for their restless chief at every corner, and the 
fear with which they peered through the night fori 
a gleam of his teeth introduced that now familiar 
Rooseveltian feature to national notice for the first, 
time. The cartoonist delighted in picturing scared 
policemen "seeing things at night" in the form of a I 
set of teeth shining in the inky darkness. 

There was a labor strike and he went among 
the strikers. He attended a meeting of the strike 
leaders. In the course of the conference, a hot- 
headed man spoke rather lightly of the possibility 
of a riot if the terms of the strikers were refused. 
Commissioner Roosevelt squarely met this issue by 
saying with much earnestness : "Gentlemen, I have 
come to get your point of view and see if we can- 
not agree to help each other out. But we want 
to make it clear to ourselves at the start that 
the greatest damage any man can do his cause 
is to counsel violence." Then, bringing his fist 

94 



IT THE HEAD OF THE NEW YORK POLICE 



llown upon the counsel table, this guardian of the 
i>eace concluded : "Order must be maintained, and, 
nake no mistake, I will maintain it." No one 
vho heard these words could doubt their meaning 
>r force. They went forth into the streets and 
iad a greater influence for order than the clubs 
>f a thousand policemen. 

Mr. Roosevelt found, soon after entering upon his 
iuties, that no amount of vigilance on his part could 
nake the force honest unless the Commission itself 
lonestly tried to enforce all the laws alike. The law 
directing the closing of liquor saloons on Sunday 
lever had been enforced against a large number of 
iavored saloon-keepers. The public sentiment of 
a city as big as New York and made up of so many 
different races, with customs which they had brought 
with them from foreign lands, seemed opposed to a 
:omplete and impartial shutting of the doors of bar- 
rooms on Sunday. 

No commission ever had pretended to apply the 
law to "friendly" places. Nearly two-thirds of the 
leaders of Tammany Hall were or had been in the 
liquor business and any saloon-keeper with sufficient 
influence was never troubled. Finally any one who 

95 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



would pay enough blackmail could keep open, while 
all who did not succeed in satisfying the police were 
arrested if they tried to do any business on Sundays. 

Mr. Roosevelt determined to wipe out this source 
of corruption by compelling the police to close all 
saloons. He expressed no opinion on the merits 
of the law itself, and adopted the policy of enforcing 
it chiefly for the sake of stopping the old policy of 
unfair discrimination and general blackmail. There 
was a furious outcry against him and his Puritan 
Sunday. He was ruining the prosperity of the city 
and turning New York into a sleepy little village. 
Moreover, it was absurd for him to think that he 
could stop Sunday liquor selling in New York. 

After a few weeks the plan ceased to be absurd, 
because the saloons were shut tight as drums. It 
was an impressive example of Rooseveltian effi- 
ciency. His success, however, did not please the 
enemies of the law, and Mr. Roosevelt doubtless 
thought he was but stating a plain fact to an old 
Harvard friend, who called on him at the time, when 
he said, "You may consider me politically dead." 

The Germans, so numerous and powerful in New 
York, were up in arms against Mr. Roosevelt's 

96 



AT THE HEAD OF THE NEW YORK POLICE 

policy. A monster parade was planned as an ex- 
pression of their protest. Invitations were sent to 
all the city officials, but when Mr. Roosevelt appeared 
on the reviewing stand, there was amazement. 
The people there were no less amazed than one of 
the paraders, a veteran of the Franco-German War, 
who, unaware of the presence of the man against 
whom he was marching, shouted as he approached 
the reviewing party, " Wo ist der Roosevelt?" 
("Where is Roosevelt?") The old fellow was 
dumfounded to see the smiling face of the Com- 
missioner looking down upon him, and to hear him 
answer: "Hier bin ich. Was willst du, Kamrad?" 
("Here I am. What do you wish, Comrade ?") He 
recovered in time to "Hoch! Hoch!" for Roose- 
velt, who beamed with good nature throughout the 
hostile demonstration. 

When two carriages passed, one bearing a sign, 
" Roosevelt's Razzle Dazzle Racket," and the other 
a card reading, "Send the Police Czar to Russia," 
[ie despatched a policeman to beg the gift of them 
as souvenirs of the occasion. The men in the car- 
riages were bewildered by the request, but obligingly 
granted it. 

h 97 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



Before the parade was ended the crowd caught his 
spirit and there were cheers for him from those who 
had come to jeer. "Bully for Teddy!" "He's 
all right!" and "Good boy!" he heard them shout, 
and as he left the stand he could truthfully assure 
the committee that he had had " a bully time." After 
all, there was something those sturdy German citizens 
liked besides their Sunday beer, and that was a man 
unafraid. 

Mr. Roosevelt had heard much from the press and 
the politicians of the awful wrong he was doing 
the working people by closing the "poor man's club," 
the saloon, on the only day of rest. He made up 
his mind he would pass a Sunday in the tenement- 
house districts and see for himself the effect of his 
policy. He went into the tenements and heard 
from the lips of women their gladness that the men 
were no longer lured from home on the one day when 
they could be with their families. Savings banks 
reported increased deposits, and pawn shops a poor 
business. The great Bellevue Hospital, for the first 
time in its long existence, had not a single case on 
Monday due to a Sunday brawl. Employers said 
that they never before had been able to begin the 



AT THE HEAD OF THE NEW YORK POLICE 

week, as now, with a full force of men for their shops. 
Happy mothers took their children from public in- 
stitutions, where they had been placed in terror of 
drunken fathers. 

Even the liquor-dealers, yes, the saloon-keepers 
themselves, through the editor of their official paper, 
were moved to say: "The present police commission- 
ers are honestly endeavoring to have the law impar- 
tially carried out. They are no respecters of persons. 
And our information from all classes of liquor-dealers 
is that the rich and the poor, the influential and the 
uninfluential, are required equally to obey the law." 

There were thirteen thousand saloons in New York. 
Before Mr. Roosevelt took office hundreds of those 
saloons were compelled to close. In the year pre- 
vious there had been more than ten thousand arrests 
for violations of the Sunday liquor law. At the 
same time thousands of saloons, paying hundreds 
of thousands of dollars in blackmail, were allowed 
to keep wide open. Under Mr. Roosevelt all alike 
were closed, and it was done without making half as 
many arrests, while that form of blackmail ceased 
entirely. It was an impressive example of law 
enforcement and the "square deal." 

99 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



There was a tenement-house law, which had been 
as much ignored as the Sunday law. This statute au- 
thorized the destruction of unfit tenements, "infant 
slaughter houses," as they had been rightly termed. 
Many of them had been duly condemned, but they 
were still standing when Mr. Roosevelt came into 
office. As President of the Police Board he had a seat 
on the Board of Health, and he promptly seized 
fully one hundred wretched and crowded hives of the 
helpless poor. The effect of his measures was shown 
in the lower death rate. In one neighborhood it fell 
from thirty-nine in a thousand to sixteen, which was less 
than the general rate of mortality for the whole city. 

One more lesson in the "square deal" was taught 
by Mr. Roosevelt, when a notorious foreign agitator 
came to New York. This person, who was widely 
known as a " Jew baiter," or as one who went about 
stirring up hatred and strife against the Jewish race, 
was to open a campaign in the United States. His 
first speech was to be delivered in New York, and his 
friends came to Mr. Roosevelt with an appeal for 
police protection. "He shall have all the police 
protection he wants," the Commissioner assured the 
delegation. 



AT THE HEAD OF THE NEW YORK POLICE 

Then he sent for a police inspector and said: 
"Select thirty good, trusty, intelligent Jewish mem- 
bers of the force, men whose faces most clearly show 
their race, and order them to report to me in a body." 
When the thirty chosen representatives of the chosen 
people stood before him a broad smile of satisfaction 
spread over his face, for he had never seen a more 
Hebraic assemblage in his life. 

"Now," he said to these policemen, "I am going 
to assign you men to the most honorable service you 
have ever done, the protection of an enemy, and the 
defence of religious liberty and free speech in the 
chief city of the United States. You all know who 
and what Dr. Ahlwart is. I am going to put you in 
charge of the hall where he lectures and hold you 
responsible for perfect order throughout the evening. 
I have no more sympathy with Jew baiting than you 
have. But this is a country where your people 
are free to think and speak as they choose in religious 
I matters, as long as they do not interfere with the 
j peace and comfort of their neighbors, and Dr. 
Ahlwart is entitled to the same privilege. It should 
be your pride to see that he is protected in it; that 
will be the finest way of showing your appreciation 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



of the liberty you yourselves enjoy under the Ameri- 
can flag." The thirty saluted and marched silently 
off on their novel duty. 

When the Jew baiters came to the hall, looking for 
a mob of Jews, they could hardly believe their eyes, 
for they saw the place guarded at every approach and 
the interior lined by those uniformed Jewish protec- 
tors. The agitator and his followers walked between 
rows of stern, solemn Jewish policemen, standing 
mute and stiff as statues. The Jews, moreover, 
who came bent on disturbing the meeting, were 
restrained by the mere presence of their brethren, 
who stood before them charged with the duty of 
keeping the peace. When one did let his angry 
passion rise above control, a Jewish policeman 
quietly reached for him and firmly threw him out of 
the hall. The meeting failed utterly from lack of 
opposition, and the great national movement against 
the Jews was ruined, at the outset, by Mr. Roosevelt's 
illustration of the virtues of Jewish citizenship. 

The Republican party was now once more in 
power at Washington, and Mr. Roosevelt, feeling 
that he had done what he could for the police depart- 
ment of New York, resigned from the Board, again 



AT THE HEAD OF THE NEW YORK POLICE 

to serve in the broader field of the national gov- 
ernment. The standard of honesty which he set 
in police affairs has not since been lowered, without 
disastrous results to those responsible for it. He 
showed the people of the city that wholesale graft 
was not a necessary evil, and the lesson has never 
been forgotten. 



103 



CHAPTER XI 

GETTING READY FOR WAR 



April 19, 1897, appointed Assistant Secretary of the Navy. — The 
bosses reluctantly let him have an office where "he can do no 
harm." — The prophet of the coming war with Spain. — 
"Sharpening the tools of the navy." — Reorganizing the 
naval personnel. — Giving the "men behind the guns" a chance 
to learn how to shoot. — President McKinley and his Cabinet 
invite the ardent Assistant Secretary to a Cabinet meeting and 
are much amused by his advice as to how the war may be 
avoided. — Buying vessels. — On the War Board. — The war 
comes, and he leaves his desk to go to the front, resigning May 6, 
1898. 

Mr. Roosevelt did not seek one of the higher 
stations in the administration of President McKinley. 
Although he had been in public life more than fifteen 
years and had a national reputation, he never had 
asked for or received any honorary appointment. 
Many young men of wealth and education are willing 
to take only fancy assignments at European courts, 
where, as ministers or secretaries of embassies, they 
can "loaf around a throne." Mr. Roosevelt, on 
the other hand, had always avoided the soft berths, 
and had sought places where he could work and fight 

104 




Mr. Roosevelt as Assistant Secretary of the Navy 



GETTING READY FOR WAR 



and learn. This was all he asked now of his party, 
when, once more in complete control of the govern- 
ment, it was distributing, with a lavish hand, the 
honors of office. 

It was well that he was so modest in his ambition. 
For it must be admitted that the political leaders 
distrusted him as much as ever. His outspoken 
independence annoyed them. They never could be 
sure what he would say or do next. Their lack of 
confidence had been communicated to the country 
generally, which looked upon him as an honest and 
patriotic man, but impulsive and unsafe. To give 
him a free hand in a place of power was a thing 
unthought of. 

Fortunately, he was content merely to serve, and 
he asked for nothing more than the Assistant Secre- 
taryship of the Navy Department. This was a place in 
small demand, for it promised little in salary or fame. 
Mr. Roosevelt, however, never had made his living 
in a public office, and as for fame, he had found that 
it was sure to follow him wherever he made him- 
self useful to the public. No office, however obscure, 
could bury a man of his restless spirit. 

Nevertheless, it looked for a while as if he might 

i°5 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



be refused even an assistant secretaryship, and 
Senator Piatt of New York was reluctant to forego 
his objection to the appointment. The "easy boss," 
as Mr. Piatt styled himself, finally was persuaded not 
to oppose Mr. Roosevelt's appointment to an office 
where he "could do no harm." 

As for Mr. Roosevelt, he was attracted to the place 
by his early interest in the American navy, whose 
gallant deeds in the War of 1812 he had recorded in 
his first historical work. Moreover, he felt that it 
was urgently necessary to strengthen this arm of 
the service as a means of national defence, and he 
welcomed the chance to have a hand in its upbuild- 
ing. In his opinion the country was in grave danger 
of a conflict with Spain, and he believed it was none 
too soon to place the navy in readiness to meet an 
enemy in open war. He had watched the course of 
the rebellion against Spanish rule in the neighboring 
island of Cuba and he foresaw the possibility that we 
would be drawn into a strife so near our own door. 
President Cleveland had offered peaceful counsels to 
Spain, and she had haughtily rejected them. Con- 
gress had almost unanimously expressed its sym- 
pathy with the Cuban revolutionists. The outcries 

106 



GETTING READY FOR WAR 



of the starving and the imprisoned, stirred our people 
and swelled the popular demand that our govern- 
ment should stop the useless warfare, which was 
making a desert of a fertile island, closely bound to 
us in trade. 

On the other hand, although our ships were patrol- 
ling the coast in an honest effort to prevent the ship- 
ment of arms from our ports to the Cubans, Spain 
constantly complained that we were helping her 
rebellious subjects, contrary to our treaty pledges 
and the law of nations. This was the sensitive con- 
dition of affairs when Mr. Roosevelt applied for a 
place in the Navy Department, and the conditions 
grew worse with each succeeding month. 

One of the first tasks which he took up, when 
seated at his new desk, was the reorganization of the 
system of rank and promotion among naval officers. 
This represented a long-standing grievance, which 
many men had tried to redress, but all efforts had 
failed from a lack of agreement among the officers 
themselves. Mr. Roosevelt was made chairman of a 
board charged with the duty of bringing the con- 
flicting elements into harmony and of establishing a 
just system. The swiftness with which he despatched 

107 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



the work made many gray heads swim in the slow- 
going department. By his fairness and diplomacy, 
however, he soon won the confidence of the rival 
branches of the naval service and brought them 
together in support of a plan which was adopted, 
to the great relief of all concerned. 

Target practice was another subject to which the 
new Assistant Secretary gave prompt and vigorous 
attention. The navy had its big ships with their 
big guns, but the "men behind the guns" had little 
chance to learn how to fire them. Mr. Roosevelt 
saw that a liberal supply of ammunition was issued, 
and with it went orders for target practice. A com- 
mittee of Congress, which asked what had been done 
with so much powder, was told by Mr. Roosevelt 
that he had burnt it all up and that he wanted as 
much more for the same purpose. 

He was battling all the time with the red tape of 
the department, for which he had no more respect 
than for a tangle of weeds at his feet. A board of 
officers, with which he had to meet, tried his patience 
sorely. One day, as the other members were leaving, 
after a long and useless session, Mr. Roosevelt ex- 
claimed, "Gentlemen, if Noah had been obliged 

108 



GETTING READY FOR WAR 



to consult such a commission as this about building 
the ark, it wouldn't be built now." 

With the destruction of the battleship Maine in 
the harbor of Havana it was no longer possible for 
the most conservative to ignore the gravity of the sit- 
uation in the Antilles. Mr. Roosevelt now found a 
more ready support in his work, which he described 
as "sharpening the tools of the navy." That awful 
disaster made it plain to nearly every one that our 
own peace and safety would remain in peril as long 
as we suffered this neighborhood quarrel to rage about 
us. The activity of the Navy Department was in- 
stantly increased, and Mr. Roosevelt came to be 
hailed as the prophet of the occasion. The following 
despatch, sent only ten days after the sinking of 
the Maine, is part of our naval history: — 

Washington, February 25, 1898. 
Dewey, Hong Kong : 

Secret and confidential. — Order the squadron, except 
the Monocacy, to Hong Kong. Keep full of coal. In the 
event of declaration of war with Spain, your duty will be 
to see that Spanish squadron does not leave the Asiatic 
coast, and then offensive operations in Philippine Islands. 
Keep Olympia until further orders. 

Roosevelt. 
109 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



Some persons in high places were alarmed or 
amused by Mr. Roosevelt's militant spirit. President 
McKinley, for one, was inclined to smile at his im- 
petuous Assistant Secretary. When Spain collected a 
fleet of warships, Mr. Roosevelt advised the President 
to tell her frankly that if she sent them across the 
Atlantic this government would regard it as an act 
of war. Mr. McKinley laughingly told his Cabinet 
about it. " Roosevelt has the whole programme of the 
war mapped out," he said. The Cabinet liked a joke 
as well as the chief, and the President was urged to 
summon the Assistant Secretary of the Navy to the 
meeting. Mr. Roosevelt went before the assembled 
wisdom unabashed, and vigorously expounded his 
view of the proper measures to be taken. When he 
retired, President McKinley looked around the 
Cabinet table with an amused expression, where- 
upon three or four of the members laughed outright. 
It was too good a joke to keep, and by night the clubs 
were let into it, and all the town could chuckle over 
this latest Rooseveltian outburst. 

Notwithstanding the merriment of the capital, it 
is fairly safe to assume that if Mr. Roosevelt had 
been in authority he would have warned Spain against 

no 



GETTING READY FOR WAR 



sending the fleet, and there is at least a possibility 
that war might have been averted by such a bold 
stroke of frankness. The sailing of the ships was 
a hostile act aimed at this country alone, for, as 
Mr. Roosevelt told the Cabinet, there was no 
other navy than ours in these waters. The Cubans 
had no boats and were nowhere in range of naval 
guns. 

If Mr. Roosevelt did not prevail in council, he 
was able to do much toward getting the navy ready 
for what he was convinced was the inevitable. " His 
activity was characteristic," Secretary Long has 
said. "He was zealous in the work of putting the 
navy in condition for the apprehended struggle. 
His ardor sometimes went faster than the President 
or the Department approved." It certainly went 
faster than the other arm of the service, the War 
Department, for the total unpreparedness of the 
army, when hostilities began, stands as one of the 
unhappy chapters in the history of our military 
administration. 

It was Mr. Roosevelt's special duty to buy vessels 
for the navy to be used as transports and for carrying 
~oal and supplies. He expended millions of dollars 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



in this work. The prices put upon the boats by their 
owners were often shamefully unreasonable, and at 
times Mr. Roosevelt could not repress his hot 
indignation toward those who thus took advantage 
of their country in time of war. 

His last assignment in the Department was as a 
member of the War Board, charged with the duty 
of moving the ships and watching the enemy. But 
when the war came he said: "There is nothing 
more for me to do here. I must get into the fight 
myself. It is a just war, and the sooner we meet 
it, the better. Now that it has come I have no 
right to ask others to do the fighting while I stay 
at home." 

Dewey had won his signal victory at Manila, and 
all the country was exultant with pride over the 
efficiency of our navy. It is true that Mr. Roose- 
velt's work in the Department was done, and it had 
been a work of prime importance. "If it had 
not been for Roosevelt," said Cushman K. Davis of 
Minnesota, the chairman of the Senate Committee on 
Foreign Relations, "we would not have been able to 
strike the blow we did at Manila. It needed just 
Roosevelt's energy and promptness." Now he must 



GETTING READY FOR WAR 

throw himself into the strife of arms, for this man, 
with the dash of Henry of Navarre," as Secretary 
Long said, but "without any of his vices," must obey 
the sage: — 

Go put your creed into your deed, 
Nor speak with double tongue. 



"3 



CHAPTER XII 



ORGANIZING THE ROUGH RIDERS 



Roosevelt is offered the command of the First Regiment United 
States Volunteer Cavalry, "The Rough Riders," but asks that 
Leonard Wood be made colonel and he lieutenant-colonel. — 
Sworn in May 6, 1898. — The plainsmen and mountaineers 
aflame to join the unique regiment. — College-bred youths of 
the East equally eager to enlist in the ranks. — May 9-19, 1898, 
Rough Riders organized at San Antonio, Texas. — The strangest 
comrades ever gathered under the flag. — A New York club- 
man cooking for a New Mexican troop. — Swells and cow- 
boys, gamblers and Indians, shoulder to shoulder. — Queer 
mascots at San Antonio. 

Before he thought of raising a regiment of his own, 
Mr. Roosevelt tried other ways of going to the war 
with Spain. At first he wished to be appointed on 
General Fitzhugh Lee's staff, but finally preferred 
a place in the line. He turned to New York, in the 
hope that he might be made one of the field officers 
of the 7 1st Regiment from that state. The Governor, 
however, was embarrassed with many applications 

At last, he adopted the plan of recruiting a regi 
ment among the men of his old Wild West, and Sec- 
retary Alger offered to make him the colonel of sue 
a command. Roosevelt's only military experience, 

114 



: 




^ r lirll 




*H 



i 







ORGANIZING THE ROUGH RIDERS 

however, had been gained in a four years' service 
with the New York militia, in which he had risen 
to a captaincy. He wisely reflected that, while he 
was learning his new duties, the army would go off 
to Cuba, and leave him and his regiment behind on 
the training field. He therefore asked the Secretary 
of War to appoint him lieutenant-colonel and make 
Leonard Wood the colonel. Wood was a surgeon 
in the regular army and had been the physician in 
attendance on President McKinley. Although war 
was not his business, he had led a body of troops 
against the Apache Indians in an emergency and won 
a medal of honor. In the course of his service he 
had picked up a sound general knowledge of army 
methods. 

Roosevelt and Wood had never met until the former 
came to Washington as Assistant Secretary. They 
had then been immediately attracted to each other, 
and soon became fast friends. The surgeon had 
been fired with an ambition to lead a relief expe- 
dition to the Alaskan mining region on the Klondike 
the winter before, and had urged Roosevelt to join 
him. They were now equally eager to serve in the 
war, and Wood had tried in vain for an appointment 

"5 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



from his own state, Massachusetts. He welcomed 
the chance to join his friend in raising the Western 
regiment, and, with high ardor, they entered upon 
their duties. 

The office of the Assistant Secretary in the Navy 
Department took on the air of a cavalry camp, with 
its saddles arid bridles and spurs strewn about, and 
its air of martial bustle. 

The plan of a Western regiment set the plainsmen 
and the mountaineers aflame with excitement. 
They telegraphed offers of their services, singly and 
in hastily formed bands. People began to speak 
of the picturesque organization as "The Rough 
Riders," a term borrowed from the circus. The idea 
seized upon the imagination of adventurous Eastern 
youth. From the South, and indeed from all direc- 
tions, applications flowed in a torrent. 

No one caught the contagion of the Roosevelt 
spirit more quickly than the college athletes of the 
East. Young men of education and fortune pressed 
more earnestly for a chance to serve in the ranks 
under Roosevelt, than to gain commissions from the 
President as officers of other commands. While 
he had to decline applications by the thousands, 

116 



ORGANIZING THE ROUGH RIDERS 

Mr. Roosevelt determined to accept a sufficient num- 
ber of picked men, of athletic tastes, from the older 
states to form a troop. 

A most remarkable lot of private soldiers they 
proved to be, when they came to Washington to be 
mustered in. There were among them graduates 
of all the famous colleges, members of the most fash- 
ionable clubs of New York and Boston, and troopers 
from the fancy mounted militia of the big cities. 
There were the celebrated tennis champion and the 
next best player; a captain of a Harvard crew and 
one of his men ; two foot-ball players from Princeton ; 
two noted track athletes from Yale; two polo players 
from Mr. Roosevelt's old team at Oyster Bay; a 
celebrated steeplechase rider from New York; a 
captain of a Columbia crew, and there were New 
York policemen, anxious to serve again under their 
old Commissioner. 

As this unusual troop was about to be mustered in, 
Lieutenant-Colonel Roosevelt addressed a few re- 
marks to them in this vein: "Gentlemen: You have 
now reached the last point. If any one of you doesn't 
mean business, let him say so now. An hour from 
now it will be too late to back out. Once you are in, 

117 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



you've got to see it through. You've got to per- 
form, without flinching, whatever duty is assigned 
to you, regardless of the difficulty or the danger 
attending it. You must know how to ride, you must 
know how to shoot, you must know how to live in 
the open. Absolute obedience to every command is 
your first lesson. No matter what comes you mustn't 
squeal. Think it over, all of you. If any man wants 
to withdraw, he will be gladly excused, for there are 
thousands who are anxious to have places in this regi- 
ment." It is needless to say that no one backed out. 
The lieutenant-colonel added, "There are not enough 
tactics for all, but I will give you these to study in 
the cars." With this he shot the little books at their 
heads as if they were bullets aimed at the enemy. 

The newly made soldiers were then turned over to 
a veteran sergeant of the regular army, who had 
charge of them on their journey to San Antonio, 
Texas, where the Western troops of the regiment were 
already assembled. Naturally some of them did 
not fall at once into army ways. One engaged a sec- 
tion in the sleeping-car, and at the station in Wash- 
ington seated himself comfortably in the Pullman. 

"Take your things back there," the old sergeant 

118 



ORGANIZING THE ROUGH RIDERS 

said to him, as he jerked his thumb toward the 
ordinary day coach provided by the government; 
"that's where you belong." There was no "squeal- 
ing;" the high private abandoned his section, 
saluted, and went back in the train, to find half a 
seat in which to bunk all the way to Texas. 

When the men from the East arrived at San 
Antonio, they were permitted to have one last taste 
of their accustomed luxuries. They went to the best 
hotel and ordered the best breakfast that the house 
could serve. After they had eaten it they declared, 
"It's all off after this," and cheerfully entered upon 
the simple life of the camp. 

Lieutenant-Colonel Roosevelt, after succeeding in 
getting the very latest arms and equipment, with 
smokeless powder, joined the regiment and took up 
the work of getting it into shape for service. He 
found the most strangely assorted command that ever 
had assembled under the stars and stripes. With the 
exception of fifty men from the East, the force was 
drawn from the great cattle country, which he knew 
so well, and from the mountains which he had 
roamed on his hunting trips. The men had come 
from lonely hunters' cabins and shifting cow camps. 

119 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



The captains and lieutenants were sometimes gradu- 
ates of the regular army, who had settled in the West. 
Other officers had been sheriffs and deputy sheriffs, 
United States marshals and deputy marshals, men 
who had fought Indians and white bandits. 

Captain "Bucky" O'Neill, mayor of Prescott, Ari- 
zona, had faced the Apaches, and his father had 
fought in Meagher's brigade in the Civil War. 
Captain Llewellyn, of New Mexico, had been shot 
four times in battles with Indians and outlaws. 
Major Brodie was a West Pointer, who had been out 
of the army for twenty years. Allen Capron was 
fifth in descent from father to son who had served in 
the army. Lieutenant Mcllhenny was a Louisiana 
planter, who owned an island. Captain Jenkins 
of South Carolina was the son of a Confederate 
general. Captain Luna of New Mexico was a pure- 
blooded Spaniard, although his people had lived in 
New Mexico before the Mayflower landed at Plym- 
outh. Sergeant Darry had been Speaker of the 
House in the Legislature of New Mexico. There 
was a big Australian who had served in the bush, 
and there were a half-dozen Texas rangers. Some 
were professional gamblers of the frontier. 



ORGANIZING THE ROUGH RIDERS 

There were Cherokee Bill, Happy Jack, Smoky 
Moore, Rattlesnake Pete, and there were Cherokee, 
Chickasaw, Creek, and Pawnee Indians. There was 
an ex-city marshal of Dodge City, Kansas, whose 
ear had been "bitten off," as he explained. A sharp- 
shooter from the North Carolina mountains and a 
bear hunter from Wyoming mingled with a buffalo 
hunter, a pursuer of moonshine stills, stage drivers, 
miners, and cow punchers. One man had been chief 
of scouts in the Riel Rebellion, in the Canadian 
Northwest, and there was McGinty, a famous 
bronco buster, who couldn't keep step on parade 
for the simple reason that he had walked so little. 
A trumpeter was an Italian who had been a soldier 
in Egypt and China. 

After a few days of reserve on both sides, the curled 
darlings of the Eastern cities and the bronzed rustlers 
from the Wild West were merged in an indistinguish- 
able mass of good fellowship. Lieutenant-Colonel 
Roosevelt found his old friend Wood bury Kane, hunts- 
man and yachtsman, serving as cook and dish-washer 
for some New Mexicans, and "doing it well," as one 
of his superiors said. The Westerners delighted 
in giving ironical nicknames to the Easterners. 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



A fastidious member of an Eastern club became 
"Tough Ike," and his bunkie, or tentmate, was a 
cow puncher. A young Jew was called "Pork 
Chops," and so on. 

Josephine, a mountain lion from Arizona, was a 
favorite of the regiment. Her sway was disputed 
by an eagle from New Mexico, who flew wherever 
he wished or walked up and down the company 
streets. He was young and had been taken from 
his nest when a fledgling. He could beat off Jose- 
phine at any time. There was a worthless cur of 
a dog, who was harried a good deal by the lion, 
although sometimes he would make bold to turn upon 
her and overawe her with a steady gaze. 

There was, however, much less play than work, 
hard, hot work in the dusty field. The regiment 
was worked night and day, and the men were not 
spared for a minute, in the determination to make 
them worthy to be taken with the first army of 
invasion. Lieutenant-Colonel Roosevelt slept under 
his shelter tent in his poncho and blanket. He dis- 
dained any comfort which his men could not have 
and ate as they ate and slept as they slept. 

He and the officers proved themselves strict dis- 



ORGANIZING THE ROUGH RIDERS 

ciplinarians. Colonel Wood hated to do it, but for 
the man's own sake, he felt obliged to rebuke his 
Cherokee cook, who one day bawled out, "If you 
I fellers don't come pretty soon everything '11 get cold." 
One child of the plains was so totally incapable of 
observing regulations in his new life that he was 
finally sentenced to six months' imprisonment. 
When the time came for the regiment to move, he 
begged so hard to be allowed to go, that the 
lieutenant-colonel said, "All right; you deserve to 
be shot as much as any one and you may come 
along." On receipt of marching orders, Colonel 
Wood and Lieutenant-Colonel Roosevelt embraced 
in their delight, and all the camp was wild with joy. 



123 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE FIRST BATTLE 



May 29, 1898, the Rough Riders leave San Antonio. — Arrival 
at Tampa, Florida, June 3. — Wood and Roosevelt, triumphing 
over the general confusion, get aboard the transport Yucatan. 
— Half the regiment and all the horses left behind. — Landing 
on Cuban soil, June 22. — A forced march to the front under 
the tropic sun. — "Wood's Weary Walkers." — The first fight 
at Las Guasimas, June 24. — The Rough Riders targets for 
an unseen foe. — Their heroism in their baptism of fire. — The 
country thrilled by the stories of the regiment's exploits. — 
Indian and cowboy, miner and college athlete, all in a common 
grave. 

The Rough Riders, with their animals, started 
from San Antonio in seven trains. Lieutenant- 
Colonel Roosevelt waited for the last train and 
made the journey in a common old day coach, 
having given his sleeping-car berth to a sick 
soldier. They were four hot days and nights on the 
road to their destination at Tampa, Florida. Only 
three days' rations had been issued to them, and the 
dirty cars were awfully overcrowded. 

Long delays occurred at nearly every possible point, 
and the lieutenant-colonel talked to some railroad 
officials, whom he encountered, as if they were Span- 

124 



THE FIRST BATTLE 



iards. In his spare moments he whiled away the 
time with a copy of M. Demoulin's "Superiorite des 
Anglo-Saxons." The men were pleasantly diverted 
by the enthusiastic receptions which awaited them 
throughout the South. Cheering crowds greeted 
them everywhere in Dixie, sometimes as early as four 
o'clock in the morning, and the pretty girls, with arm- 
fuls of flowers, coaxed away nearly all the buttons 
on their uniforms. 

Worn out and hungry, the regiment was landed 
many miles from its proper destination. Thence the 
troopers made their way on their equally tired horses 
to a point back of the big hotel in Tampa, where 
they camped. The lieutenant-colonel did not 
avail himself of the fair chance to take up his quar- 
ters comfortably in the hotel, but shared the lot of his 
men, as he had done in Texas and on the sultry train. 
In the confusion which reigned at Tampa, he him- 
self furnished many of the needed supplies, and 
when asked by the Commission of Investigation, 
after the war, if he had been reimbursed by the 
Department, he replied, "Oh, Lord, no; that was a 
personal matter." 

After several days of waiting, orders came for 

125 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



about half of the regiment to embark for Cuba, 
leaving behind the rest of the men and all the horses, 
except a few for the principal officers. The troopers 
who could not go were sorely disappointed, but 
they accepted their fate like soldiers. The men 
who were more favored quite forgot the loss of their 
mounts, although it was the end of their dream of 
wild dashes through the ranks of the foe on their 
little war horses. 

When in readiness to go down to Port Tampa, 
where the transport ships lay, no cars could be 
found. Some coal cars were seized and on them the 
troopers rode to the Port. "We had been told if we 
didn't get aboard by daybreak we'd get left," Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Roosevelt testified before the War 
Investigating Commission. "We didn't intend to get 
left, and we took those coal cars and slipped down." 

Again at Port Tampa, there was the same kind 
of tangle : no provision, no one in authority, and 
every man for himself. In such a situation, for- 
tunately, the commanders of the Rough Riders 
were quite able to look out for themselves. One 
officer told them their boat was the Yucatan, while 
others insisted that the ship had been given to their 

126 



THE FIRST BATTLE 



forces. Lieutenant-Colonel Roosevelt rushed his 
Rough Riders down to the dock, and, by main 
strength, held the gang-plank against two other 
anxious regiments until his men were aboard. This 
point gained, the Yucatan, with its Rough Riders, 
lay in the steaming hot bay of Tampa for nearly a 
week. 

It was an old rattletrap boat, with a third more 
passengers aboard than she was built to carry, and 
wretched sleeping and deck room. The boys from 
the prairies, however, most of whom had never 
seen a large body of water, swarmed the rigging and 
joyed in the novelty of life on the ocean wave. Their 
Italian trumpeter pitched patriotic tunes for the 
lusty throats of the cowboy choir, and there was no 
"squealing." 

While waiting, and while sailing the Caribbean 
Sea, the officers were kept busy caring for their men 
and studying their books. They held a school of 
instruction daily, and expectations ran high as they 
looked forward to their Cuban campaign. The 
lieutenant-colonel has said, with pride, that he 
did not hear any rough talk or an unbecoming story 
at the officers' mess. Although drawn from widely 

127 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



different paths in life, they were already bound 
together by a genuine comradeship. Their toast 
on the transport was, "The Officers — May the war 
last until each is killed, wounded, or promoted." 

" Bucky " O'Neill, the Arizona mayor and ex-sheriff, 
whose name was a terror to outlaws, white and red, 
the gambler who would stake his all on a card, 
delighted to speculate on the mysteries of the uni- 
verse, as he leaned on the railing of the ship and 
gazed at the Southern Cross, or discuss the roots 
of words, or debate the merits of the great men of 
literature. Such a nature welcomed the hazard of 
battle for the sake of the hazard. "Who would 
not risk his life for a star ?" he asked, as he thought 
of the chance to win on the field a general's star 
for his shoulder strap. After more than a week 
out from Tampa the troopers of the Yucatan landed 
on Cuban soil at Daiquiri, and "Bucky" risked his 
life there, not for a star, but in a daring effort to 
save a negro soldier from drowning. 

The voyage had been a long and stately proces- 
sion across the sea. There were thirty transports 
in the line, escorted by a heavy guard of war-ships 
to protect them from surprise by the enemy. The 

128 



THE FIRST BATTLE 



landing was made under cover of a terrific bom- 
bardment by the American guns, as they raked the 
wooded shores, wherein the Spaniards might be 
lurking. A hard march to the front was begun 
immediately. When the sun was not scorching the 
men, a tropic rain was falling upon them in a torrent. 

The plainsmen, so unused to tramping, wobbled 
and hobbled along. They were no longer the 
dashing Rough Riders, for, with their horses hun- 
dreds of miles away, they had been rechristened 
"Wood's Weary Walkers." At every halt they 
would throw off their packs and fling themselves 
in the mud. When they bivouacked for the night, 
they would strip themselves of their wet clothing 
and dry it by the camp fires. Their officers ig- 
nored all discomforts in their steady determination 
to reach the front on time. Lieutenant-Colonel 
Roosevelt had not waited at the landing-place for 
his own personal baggage. His only extra gar- 
ment was a rain coat, and the next day he was happy 
to get his tooth-brush. 

On their third day in Cuba the Rough Riders 
were sent forward along a trail through the jungle, 
a trail so narrow that the men had to do most of their 

K 129 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



marching in single file. It was bordered by a dense 
tropic tangle. Although their pace was furiously 
fast, Lieutenant-Colonel Roosevelt has recorded the 
pleasure he took in the beauty of the forest, with 
its strange Southern trees, the noble palms, the bril- 
liant bloom of the flowers, the cooing of doves, and 
the call of the cuckoos. 

Suddenly word came back along the line that the 
advance guard had come upon a Spanish outpost. 
Then a sudden crash came. The first fight was 
on, and the Rough Riders were in the thick of it. 
There was a sound filling the air like the humming 
of telegraph wires ; it was the singing of the Mauser 
bullets from the guns of the enemy. But where was 
the enemy ? His smokeless powder enabled him 
to conceal himself, as he lay in the bush only a 
few yards away. "Well, I got it that time," a 
trooper would say, and a Rough Rider would fall 
before an unseen foe. 

It was a most exasperating situation for the little 
band of Americans, to stand there in that path as 
targets for invisible guns. Finally, however, a 
newspaper correspondent, Mr. Richard Harding 
Davis, who was standing beside Roosevelt, ex- 

130 






THE FIRST BATTLE 



claimed: "There they are, Colonel; look over there; 
I can see their hats in the glade." Aided by this 
suggestion, Roosevelt located the Spaniards, and at 
last the Rough Riders opened fire on them. They 
soon made it too hot for their adversaries, who were 
seen to spring up and dash for a new hiding-place. 
Some of the troopers cursed as they fired ; but 
Colonel Wood, moving calmly about, said, "Don't 
swear; shoot." 

A hail of bullets swept over the men as they ad- 
vanced. Roosevelt seized the rifle of one of his 
: wounded troopers and led a rush on some farm 
buildings ahead, from which the enemy fled. He 
and Wood refused to take to cover; their whole 
thought was to share the perils of their men and 
to set examples of courage that would steady and 
stiffen the entire line. The enemy saw them plain- 
est of all and marked them. The Mauser bullets 
would sing, "zeu," "zeu," "zeu," in their ears and 
hiss, "zip," "zip," "zip," through the waist-high 
grass in which they stood. Worst of all was the 
terrible note of "chug," when a comrade was hit. 
Once when Roosevelt leaned against a tree, a bullet 
tore the bark away and filled his eyes with the dust. 






THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



The Rough Riders had borne the baptism of fire 
with a heroism that thrilled their countrymen when 
the news came of that first battle at Las Guasimas. 
The press was filled with the praise of the officers 
and with stories of daring and devotion in the ranks. 
A corporal, wounded, was propped against a tree, 
at his own earnest request, and his rifle was handed 
to him. Then he went on firing. Finally he was 
sent to the hospital as mortally wounded; but in 
a week or two he walked six miles to rejoin the 
regiment. A cow puncher, who stayed on the 
firing line until blood told the secret of his wounded 
condition, was sent to the hospital, but was back in 
fifteen minutes. He was then carried to the hospital 
once more, under orders to ship him home. He 
escaped that night and was with the regiment 
throughout the rest of the campaign. 

The field hospital was under the open sky, with 
the spreading branches of a mango tree to shelter 
the wounded and dying. There the surgeons did 
what they could to save, and worked through the 
night by candle-light. Roosevelt went among 
the stricken to cheer them in their struggles with 
pain. "Boys," he cried, "if there is a man at home 

132 



THE FIRST BATTLE 



who wouldn't be proud to change places with you, 
he isn't worth his salt and he is not a true American." 
Once a feeble voice was lifted : — 

"My country 'tis of thee, 

Sweet land of liberty, 

Of thee I sing." 

Then two or three more voices joined in: — 

"Land where my fathers died, 
Land of the Pilgrims' pride — " 

The good old tune thus was sung with painful inter- 
ruptions under an alien sky, by those who had shed 
their blood while striving to carry 

"freedom's holy light" 

to a foreign shore, long darkened by a tyrant rule. 
With their young lives in the balance, the closing 
prayer of the song became a most affecting suppli- 
cation : — 

"Protect us by thy might, 
Great God, our King! " 

The day had cost the regiment eight killed and 
thirty-four wounded. Captain Capron, descended 
from generations of soldiers, met a soldier's death. 

133 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



Sergeant Hamilton Fish, Jr., the heir to a great 
name, was another of the Rough Riders who was 
buried in the ground which they and their com- 
rades had won. The chaplain read the burial ser- 
vice, while the troopers stood about with bared 
heads, and the jungle echoed with "Rock of Ages." 
They were fighting side by side when they fell, and 
they were not separated in their burial. All in a 
common grave they were laid — "Indian and cow- 
boy," their lieutenant-colonel has written, "miner, 
packer, and college athlete — the man of unknown 
ancestry from the lonely Western plains, and the 
man who carried on his watch the crests of the 
Stuyvesants and the Fishes, one in the way they 
had met death, just as during life they had been one 
in their daring and their loyalty." 



i34 



*3j2rc/ 




CHAPTER XIV 

IN THE BATTLE OF SAN JUAN 



July 1-2, 1898, Colonel Roosevelt leads the Rough Riders at 
San Juan. — When orders fail to come, he goes into the fight 
on his own responsibility. — Ever in the van, he inspires all 
around him, and gathers under his command fragments of half 
a dozen other regiments. — Careless of danger and in many 
narrow escapes. — Buying rations for his hungry soldiers and 
ministering to the sick. 

After the engagement at Las Guasimas, the 
Rough Riders camped on the ground which they had 
helped to win from the Spaniards. 

For several days they awaited orders to go for- 
ward toward Santiago. The commissary service was 
wretched. The transport ships lay at anchor, bur- 
dened with provisions; but they were unloaded 
and the supplies sent to the front so slowly that 
the men in the trenches were on one-third allow- 
ance. The officers were privileged to have more 
and better things to eat, even delicacies. Colonel 
Roosevelt would touch none of them. He would 
take no different shelter and no different food from 
what the men had. It came to be the rule among 

13S 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



the officers of the regiment to accept nothing that 
the privates could not have. 

Every influence in his power was exerted by the 
lieutenant-colonel to get the best for all the mem- 
bers of his command. He spent his money liberally, 
and the money which wealthy friends from New 
York had given him, in the purchase of food for 
his men. All the dainties obtainable went straight 
to the sick and the wounded in the hospital, where 
Colonel Roosevelt was a constant and cheering 
visitor. 

"Don't get up, boys," he would say, as the poor 
fellows struggled to greet him. "Lie still. Ah, 
Jim, how's your leg feeling to-day ? Getting better ? 
That's good. You'll soon be all right now. Billy, 
I hope your back doesn't trouble you so much to-day." 
Thus he went among them as if they were members 
of his own family, calling them by their names, 
remembering the ailment of each and seeing to 
the needs of all. 

When, at last, orders came for the regiment to 
move, Wood had left the Rough Riders to take 
command of a brigade, and Roosevelt took his place. 
Forward they tramped in the muddy track, through 

136 



IN THE BATTLE OF SAN JUAN 



the hot jungle. Night fell, but they did not halt until 
eight o'clock. All slept on their arms. In the 
night, Colonel Roosevelt made the round of the 
sentries to see for himself that they were properly 
guarding their sleeping comrades. 

At six o'clock of a lovely morning, the sky un- 
clouded, the lofty mountains that hemmed in San- 
tiago echoed with the boom of the Spanish cannon 
on El Caney. The Rough Riders were stationed in 
a farm-yard, where an American battery had wheeled 
into position directly in front of them. The Span- 
iards had smokeless powder, but the cannon of the 
Americans did not possess such a military luxury. 

When, therefore, the battery replied to the Span- 
ish fire, the cloud of smoke which rose from its 
guns formed a perfect target for the enemy. The 
Rough Riders were eating breakfast at the time, 
and in their enthusiasm they jumped up and cheered 
wildly. Then, after twenty minutes, came the 
well-aimed response of the Spanish gunners. The 
cheering troopers were stilled as they saw the black 
ball coming toward them, hissing and howling as it 
drew nearer, and finally exploding among them. 
One of the fragments dropped on Colonel Roose- 

i37 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



velt's wrist, hardly breaking the skin, but raising a 
lump. Four of five of his men behind him were 
wounded at the same time. 

Again, while the Rough Riders were fording a river, 
under the shots of the enemy, the American war 
balloon dropped near them, and thus attracted 
a heavy fire. They crossed the stream in such 
haste as they could, and sought shelter as they 
crouched under the bank, lay in a sunken road, or 
hid in the tall grass. Bullets swept over them in 
sheets. The colonel sent messenger after mes- 
senger for orders to advance before the welcome 
command came. Then he sprang upon his horse 
and waved his men onward, taking the customary 
place of the commander, in the rear. He urged the 
regiment so earnestly, however, that he soon found 
that he had worked his way through it to the head 
of his men. 

According to his orders, he should have marched 
his men across a place entirely exposed to the enemy. 
He obeyed with discretion, however, and employed 
the strategy of common-sense by avoiding one of 
the worst death-traps of the day. He went where 
he had been told to go, but he went in his own 

138 



IN THE BATTLE OF SAN JUAN 

way. There, he had his regiment lie down, while 
waiting further orders, but he himself stood or rode 
about. 

When he had waited as long as he deemed reason- 
able, and could not longer bear to see his men lying 
helpless, where the Spaniards were picking them 
off one by one, he took the matter in his own hands 
and moved forward. A regiment of regulars, wait- 
ing for orders, was come upon, where it lay in the 
road, and Colonel Roosevelt led his troopers through 
its lines. The regulars, stirred by this example, 
jumped up, orders or no orders, and followed, 
Roosevelt waving his hat as he rode in the van. 
From the back of the hat, a blue handkerchief with 
J white spots in it hung down to protect his neck from 
j| the sun. It was the battle-flag of the Rough Riders 
that day. He had discarded his sword as a useless 
. trapping which got in the way of his legs. He was 
coatless, and only a single shoulder-strap hung by a 
thread from his shirt, to which he had stitched it. 

It was in this manner that he led the Rough 
Riders and those who had joined them, firing as 
they ran, up the slope first of Kettle Hill, then of 
San Juan. The colonel's horse became entangled in 

i39 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



a wire fence and he finished the charge afoot. At 
one time he found himself with only five men around 
him, and two of these fell at his feet. 

The next height from Kettle Hill was San Juan 
itself, and Colonel Roosevelt led his men across 
the wide valley that lay between. White and black 
regulars and Rough Riders mingled in a confused 
mass, until he had behind him, parts of six regi- 
ments, which remained under his command until 
the next morning. When some of the strangers 
began to straggle to the rear at one point, where the 
fire was extremely savage, he leaped before them, 
with his pistol drawn. He told them that he knew 
how gallantly they had fought, but he warned them 
that he would shoot the first man to leave the front. 
"I shall be very sorry to hurt you, and you don't 
know whether or not I will keep my word; but my 
men can tell you." "He always does!" "He al- 
ways does ! " the Rough Riders shouted, and there 
was no further trouble. 

When the fighting was over, the Rough Riders, 
although largely Southerners, were ready to accept 
the negro troops as comrades with hearty good-will. 
As they said, they were willing to " drink out of the 

140 



IN THE BATTLE OF SAN JUAN 
■ 

isame canteen" with soldiers who had shown them- 
selves such brave men. 

The day's losses had been large. Of the less 

I than five hundred Rough Riders engaged, eighty- 

'nine had been killed or wounded, the heaviest sac- 
rifice of any cavalry regiment. No loss was more 

I keenly felt than that of " Bucky" O'Neill of Arizona, 
who had gone for a star and had received a bullet. 

j At the fatal moment he was walking up and down 
in front of his troop, cigarette in hand. His men 
begged him to lie down, but he declared the "Span- 
ish bullet has never been moulded that could hit 

1 me." He had hardly spoken the last of these words 
when he fell dead. 

Colonel Roosevelt, who seemed to have no thought 
of danger or self-protection, had some very narrow 
escapes. His orderly, while saluting him, fell across 
his colonel's knees, mortally wounded. Again, a 
man who was speaking with the colonel, suddenly 
fell forward, stricken by a bullet which was doubt- 
less aimed at Roosevelt. Little Texas, the colonel's 
horse, was scratched twice by bullets, one of which 
nicked the master's elbow. A sergeant, lying 
beside the colonel, quietly exclaimed: — 

141 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



"Beg pardon, Colonel; but I've been hit in the 
leg." 

"Badly?" the colonel inquired. 

"Yes, Colonel, quite badly." 

Roosevelt instantly saw to the removal of his 
companion from the front. All the stories that were 
told of his bravery may be matched with stories of 
his tenderness on the battle-field. He seemed to 
forget himself, but he never forgot his men. 

The newspapers were again filled with accounts of 
Roosevelt and his Rough Riders. It is true that he 
had shown no more heroism on the heights of Cuba 
than he had shown, time and again, in the battles of 
peace at home. In the latter, however, he could be 
suspected of "playing politics" or, perhaps, of an 
indifference to popular favor. But, when he ventured 

" Life and love and youth, 
For the great prize of death in battle," 

there was no one among all his countrymen who 
could any longer coldly doubt the quality of his 
courage and devotion. 



142 



CHAPTER XV 

THE HOME-COMING 



Frightful conditions in camp, while waiting to be sent home. — 
The famous Roosevelt "Round Robin" saves the army. — 
August 7, 1898, embarking at Santiago. — Landing at Mon- 
tauk Point, Long Island, August 15. — The Rough Riders wel- 
comed as the heroes of the war, and their leader is a popular 
idol for the first time in his life. — The affectionate relations of 
commander and regiment. — Glad days in camp. — September 
15, 1898, mustered out. — Regretful partings of strange com- 
rades. — McGinty's call on his Fifth Avenue captain. — Other 
stories of New York experiences. 

After San Juan came dreary days in the 
trenches. That period was followed by the nego- 
tiations for the surrender of Santiago, and then came 
the hardest experience of all, — idle camp life in the 
height of a tropic summer, while waiting for Spain 
to give up the war. The provisions for the health 
of the men were in the same state of neglect as the 
supplies for feeding them. 

Fever attacked the Rough Riders. There was 
little medicine and there were no cots. The sick 
had to lie in the fever-breeding mud. First and 
last all the officers of the regiment fell victims, ex- 

143 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



cepting Colonel Roosevelt and one other. The 
colonel's orderly lost eighty pounds in weight. Half 
of the members of the command were down at one 
time. All were in rags. Even the officers were 
without socks and underclothing. If there was only 
one shoulder-strap on Roosevelt's shirt at San Juan, 
there was now none at all. Nothing but the yellow 
stripes on his riding breeches showed that he was an 
officer. 

The college athletes had lost their vigor. The 
once hardy hunters and dashing cowboys lay lan- 
guidly in their miserable dog-tents. The gallant 
little army, which had overthrown the soldiers of 
Spain, was undergoing destruction by a foe with no 
banners flying or bugles blaring, but which, un- 
heard and unseen, assailed by day and by night. It 
was a most serious emergency, and to Colonel Roose- 
velt belongs the credit of rising to it, and meeting it. 

In the course of his testimony before the Com- 
mission of Investigation at Washington, he de- 
scribed a scene in battle, when his regiment was 
under a heavy fire and without orders to move. 
"What did you do ?" a member of the Commission 
asked. "I have always found it best," Colonel 

144 



THE HOME-COMING 



Roosevelt answered, "when in doubt what to do, 
to go ahead; and I went ahead." 

Every one in that death-besieged camp in Cuba 
was in doubt what to do. Then it was that Colonel 
Roosevelt went ahead. It was in violation of all 
military rules for the mere colonel of a volunteer 
regiment to take the lead. He took it, nevertheless, 
and thereby saved no one knows how many lives, 
and no one knows how black a disgrace for the 
negligent administration at Washington. 

At a meeting of the officers in the palace at San- 
tiago, the commanding-general announced that he 
[ had been informed that the War Department was 
planning to keep the army in Cuba indefinitely, send- 
ing it into the interior, where the conditions would 
be better than in the camp on the shore. When the 
i meeting had adjourned the general gave to the news- 
, paper correspondents a copy of a protest signed by 
Colonel Roosevelt. 

In this letter Roosevelt declared that it was the 
unanimous opinion of the officers that the adoption 
of the Department's plan of retaining the army in 
the island would involve the destruction of thou- 
sands. He protested that there was "no possible 
L 145 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



reason for not shipping practically the entire com- 
mand north at once." If this should not be done, 
"it will, in all human probability, mean an appalling 
disaster." On the other hand, "six weeks on the 
north Maine coast, for instance, or elsewhere, where 
the yellow fever germs cannot possibly propagate, 
would make us as fit as fighting cocks, as able as 
we are eager to take a leading part in the great 
campaign against Havana in the fall." Spain had 
not then sued for peace, and there was still a chance 
of more fighting. 

"If there were any object in keeping us here," 
this extraordinary letter continued, "we would face 
yellow fever with as much indifference as we faced 
bullets. But there is no object in it." The letter 
concluded: "I write only because I cannot see our 
men, who have fought so bravely, and who have 
endured extreme hardship and danger so uncom- 
plainingly, go to destruction without striving, so far 
as in me lies, to avert a doom as fearful as it is 
unnecessary and undeserved." After the military 
silence had thus bravely but rudely been broken by 
Colonel Roosevelt, all the officers, from the major- 
generals down, united in the now famous "Round 

146 




Colonel Roosevelt at Montauk Point 



THE HOME-COMING 



Robin," which indorsed the Roosevelt protest and 
echoed the appeal for an immediate removal of the 
army. The confused and careless officials at Wash- 
ington were stirred to action at once, and the army 
was hastened home. 

The Rough Riders were landed at Montauk 
Point, on Long Island, New York. Roosevelt, who 
had gone forth as second in command of a regiment, 
returned now as the commander of a brigade. He 
had lost twenty pounds, but he reported himself in 
"first-class health." 

The nation rang with applause at the home- 
coming of the Rough Riders and their leader, now 
a popular idol for the first time in his career. Re- 
porters swarmed about the camp at Montauk Point, 
visitors from all over the country crowded the trains 
that went there, and doctors and nurses and sup- 
plies were rushed to the hospital. The doors of 
some of the most spacious summer houses on the 
island were opened in welcome to the sick troopers. 
The period of the encampment was a continual tri- 
umph for Colonel Roosevelt and his famous regiment. 

The troopers who had been left behind in 
Florida were brought north and reunited with their 

147 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



comrades. This meeting, and the healing breezes from 
the ocean, quickly revived the spirits of the warriors. 
Lively times followed. One of the troopers of the 
regular army had a bucking horse, and some of the 
Rough Riders jeered at his failure to master the 
beast. A challenge ensued, and the next day the regi- 
ments turned out and crowded in front of Colonel 
Roosevelt's headquarters. There one of his men 
mounted and rode the horse through his wildest capers. 

The colonel rose at the end of the chaplain's ser- 
mon one Sunday and gave the men a talk. He 
warned them that, although they would be hailed as 
heroes when they were mustered out, they would find 
that this would last not more than ten days. Then 
they would learn that they had to go to work like 
every one else. 

The Rough Riders' favorite theme of praise was 
their colonel. "Why, he knows every man in the regi- 
ment," they would tell their callers. "He was always 
as ready to listen to a private as to a major-general." 
"He has spent $5000 of his own money on us." They 
were never happier than when they gave him a little 
surprise party at Montauk Point. He was called out, 
and found the regiment in a hollow square ready to 

148 



THE HOME-COMING 



present him with a bronze statue of "The Bronco 
Buster." Trooper Murphy made the speech because, 
as he said, it was well known that the colonel's heart 
always had been with the privates, who loved him 
as deeply as men could love men. The tanned faces 
streamed with tears, and Colonel Roosevelt replied 
in a voice shaken with emotion, assuring them that 
"outside of my own immediate family I shall always 
feel that stronger ties exist between you and me 
than exist between me and any one else on earth." 
Every man was rewarded with a shake of the hand 
by his grateful commander. 

The last night in camp was given over to a great 
celebration. The Rough Riders sang, and college 
boys and cowboys joined in a wild dance. The 
Indians took the lead in howling, grunting rings as 
they went bounding around the big fires, which had 
been kindled on the parade ground. 

The troopers parted with regrets. Friendships 
that were to endure had been made across social 
lines impassable in any other country. A plains- 
man accepted a pressing invitation to pass a few 
days with his bunkie, a New York youth of fastid- 
ious instincts, and arrived at his host's with no 

149 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



other baggage than an umbrella. No doubt this 
child of the wilderness thought that to carry an 
umbrella was the height of social agony, and he never 
dreamed of such effeminacies as pajamas and collars. 

McGinty, the bronco buster, promised to visit his 
captain, Woodbury Kane. As soon as he was dis- 
charged from the hospital he set out to accept the 
invitation. Ignoring such unfamiliar conveniences 
as elevated and surface cars and public cabs, he 
hired a horse and began his search in the wilderness 
of New York. When he found Captain Kane's 
ranch on Fifth Avenue, he hitched his horse to a 
lamp-post and strolled in. 

Cherokee Bill was overcome by the charms of a 
girl from Hoboken. They were married, and then 
Bill failed to find anything in his line to do. Colonel 
Roosevelt shipped the pair out to Indian Territory. 
The same fairy of the cowboys found a railroad job 
for Happy Jack. A friend of Colonel Roosevelt, a 
New York multi-millionaire, placed a generous sum 
of money in his hands for the assistance of the men 
until they could get employment. Most of them, 
however, refused to accept any of it. They had 
rustled before and they were ready to rustle again. 

150 



CHAPTER XVI 

GOVERNOR AND VICE-PRESIDENT 



He is sought out by the New York bosses to save the Republican 
party of the state from wreck at the polls. — September 27, 

1898, nominated for Governor. — He wins in an exciting 
campaign. — November 8, elected Governor. — January 2, 

1899, inaugurated as Governor. — Slowly and shrewdly makes 
himself the master at Albany. — Veteran politicians dazed by 
his skill in handling men. — Characteristic methods of push- 
ing a bill through the Legislature. — Wall Street and the 
machine plan to "bury him" in the Vice-Presidency. — He 
fights against the movement, but, in the end, accepts his party's 
call. — June 21, 1900, nominated for Vice-President. — A 
great speaking campaign. — November 6, McKinley and Roose- 
velt triumphantly elected. 

Theodore Roosevelt, the reformer, could be 
ignored with safety by the political bosses. But 
Theodore Roosevelt, the Rough Rider, must be 
reckoned with. The admiring eye of the nation 
was upon him, and the American people would have 
delighted to do him any honor. 

Every war in the past had brought forth popular 
favorites. Washington had first won the public 
confidence in the War of the Revolution, Andrew 
Jackson and William Henry Harrison in the War 

151 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



of 1 8 12, Taylor and Scott in the Mexican War, while 
political honors first came to Grant, Hayes, Gar- 
field, Benjamin Harrison, and McKinley as a reward 
for their military services in the Civil War. The 
politicians, therefore, had watched intently to see 
who would win the people's applause in the Spanish 
War. It proved to be but a little war and a short 
one. The end of it found Roosevelt, among all the 
men in khaki, without a rival in public favor. 

The wise men in politics clearly recognized the 
force of his popularity, and sought him out in his 
tent at Montauk Point. The Republican party in 
the state of New York was on the eve of an election 
and in a bad plight. The bosses had been running 
everything with a high hand, and public sentiment 
was strong for a change in the government at 
Albany. To save itself from certain wreck at the 
polls in November, the party must take up new men 
and new measures. In his dilemma, Senator Piatt, 
who, a year and a half ago, could hardly be per- 
suaded to let Mr. Roosevelt have even the Assistant 
Secretaryship of the Navy, was eager now to give 
him the nomination for the Governorship of New 
York. 

152 



GOVERNOR AND VICE-PRESIDENT 

Some of the lieutenants of the boss, however, 
dreaded Roosevelt worse than defeat. They argued 
that it would be better for the Republican machine 
to lose the state in the election than to give him 
power. They knew they could not make terms 
with him, and no one approached him with such a 
proposal. The great prize, so near his reach, did 
not tempt him for an instant from his independent 
mood. "I would rather have led this regiment than 
be Governor of New York, three times over," he 
wrote to a friend at that time. "I should say that 
the odds are against my nomination; but I can say 
also, with all sincerity, that I don't care in the 
least." 

Senator Piatt called upon Colonel Roosevelt at 
Montauk, and when his regiment had been dis- 
banded and he was free from restraint, Colonel 
Roosevelt returned the Senator's call at the Fifth 
Avenue Hotel. Many good people were in anguish 
that Roosevelt should pay this mark of courtesy to 
the "Easy Boss." They seemed to be afraid that 
he would not be able to take care of himself in the 
presence of so wily a politician. It could not be 
publicly known then, as it is now, that the Senator 

i53 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



did not venture, in the course of the meeting, to ask 
any pledge whatever from his caller. 

Openly to make such a call was really a part of 
Mr. Roosevelt's characteristic directness. It was 
known of all men that the delegates to the State 
Convention, soon to be held, were absolutely under 
the control of the Piatt organization. The Conven- 
tion would be managed, as New York Republican 
Conventions had been managed for years, by Sena- 
tor Piatt and his machine. The nomination for 
Governor must come from him. As the Republican 
party was then organized, he and his associates were 
its only chosen representatives. Mr. Roosevelt 
recognized these notorious facts with his usual 
frankness, and, when he announced that he had 
accepted the candidacy for Governor, he plainly 
said that, if elected, he should listen to advice from 
Senator Piatt and from all persons who had any to 
offer. 

In the exciting campaign that ensued, the alarm 
of the Republicans was fully justified. Only the 
personal exertions of Colonel Roosevelt saved the 
day. It was his first experience on a general speak- 
ing tour, and his addresses were followed by the en- 

i54 



GOVERNOR AND VICE-PRESIDENT 

tire country. He travelled by special train, with a 
band of assistant orators, which included some 
members of his Rough Rider regiment in their 
khaki uniforms, and he visited every section of the 
state. He spoke from early morning till midnight, 
day after day, and drew immense crowds every- 
where. 

When he entered upon his duties as Governor, he 
had the good-will of the people generally; but there 
still was a widespread feeling that he was more or 
less "unsafe" and "impulsive." His most enthu- 
siastic admirers, among the public, doubted if he 
could carry power with a steady head. His friends, 
or many of them, were sure that he would find it 
impossible to work with the Piatt organization, 
which controlled legislatures with an iron hand. 
His enemies confidently counted on him to quarrel 
with every one and to have no one to help him do 
anything. All these fears and expectations were 
disappointed. 

The new Governor began his term soberly and 
even mildly. He patiently listened to all who came, 
and, when he had to act, he acted with moderation. 
The impression went abroad that it was to be rather 

iS5 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



a colorless administration, after all. The Rough 
Rider apparently had lost his dash. Almost no one 
suspected his strategy. The old politicians around 
the Capitol and the legislators, all of whom he was 
so carefully studying and cultivating, came to the 
conclusion that he was "easy." When, at last, the 
time arrived for him to put forth his power, he 
exerted it through these very men, who were now 
in the habit of working with him, and who had lost 
much of their old distrust of him. People at a dis- 
tance from Albany were amazed by the force of his 
silent influence, as well as by his shrewdness in 
handling men. The state at large was bewildered. 
Traps were sprung, but it was too late; he knew 
how to avoid them. 

He was to be no veto Governor, in a constant 
war with the legislative branch of the government. 
If he frowned on a bill, it failed of passage. If a 
bill came up with two hostile elements appealing to 
him, one urging him to support it and the other 
calling on him to oppose it, he would bring them 
together in the Executive Chamber and labor with 
them until they found a common ground. Then 
the measure would be framed to the satisfaction of 

156 



GOVERNOR AND VICE-PRESIDENT 

I all, and with each side boasting that it had gained 
; its point. When the Legislature hesitated to pass 
laws which he recommended, he would make an 
appeal to the people directly. They were certain 
to listen to anything he had to say and almost as 
certain to agree with him. 

In six weeks from his inauguration, he was the 
recognized master of the situation. Albany was 
j dazed by his skill and success in governing. "The 
; Governor's got the best scheme I ever see in poli- 
tics," a Tammany senator exclaimed. "I don't see 
why nobody thought of it before. It's dead easy. 
He just plays the honesty game, and it works like a 
' charm." There are a lot of people in this world, 
I and not all politicians, who think that honesty will 
i not win, and that is the reason they don't try it. 
I Mr. Roosevelt's simple faith that honesty will win 
. is the very corner-stone of his success. 

There was no measure of the Roosevelt adminis- 
tration at Albany which the Governor more ear- 
nestly supported than his recommendation of a tax 
on public franchises. The big corporations were 
solidly arrayed against it. Their messengers whis- 
i pered into his ear that those corporations had con- 

i57 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



tributed $60,000 to his campaign fund; but he 
replied that he knew they had given $100,000 at 
the same time to the Democratic campaign against 
him. His newly won friends in the Legislature felt 
the pressure from the corporation lobby, and it was 
too strong for their weak human nature. They did not 
like to oppose the Governor, but this was going too far. 

The bill slept in a committee pigeonhole till near 
the end of the session. Then the Governor sent in 
a special message, with an urgent appeal for the 
passage of the bill. The message was lost on the 
way. Thereupon he sent in another message, with 
the quiet warning that if it should be lost again, he 
would have some member read it from the floor. 
His aroused determination and the popular response 
from all over the state stirred the weak-kneed legis- 
lators, and they rushed the bill through on the eve 
of adjournment. 

The corporation managers and lawyers came to 
the Governor and pointed out certain defects in the 
measure. They said, "Drop it for this session, 
and then, next winter, we ourselves will help you 
to pass a good law." The Governor, however, 
would not let go of the bird in hand. "Next winter 

158 



GOVERNOR AND VICE-PRESIDENT 

is a long way off," he told them. "I will sign this 
bill, as it stands, and at once call a special session 
of the Legislature to amend it and make it better." 
He could not be moved from this plan, and it was 
adopted. 

There was only one thing to do with such a trouble- 
some man, and that was to "bury him" in the Vice- 
Presidency of the United States. If permitted to 
[run for Governor again, the people would surely 
reelect him, in spite of Wall Street and the bosses. 
;The Vice-Presidency seemed to Mr. Roosevelt's 
enemies the only safe place for so unsafe a man. 

The suggestion, made with cool calculation by 
Isome of the most powerful and sordid interests in 
the great financial centre of the nation, was caught 
up with genuine enthusiasm by the people of the 
|West. The Governor, who was anxious to go on 
with his work at Albany, tried to stop the swelling 
movement by the most earnest refusal of the honor. 
"Under no circumstances," he declared to the coun- 
try, as early as February in 1900, "could I or would 
I accept the nomination for the Vice-Presidency." 
JEven this strong declaration did not stop the talk of 
nominating him. 

159 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



When the Republican National Convention of 
1900 met at Philadelphia, all the sentiment was for 
Governor Roosevelt for the second place on the 
ticket with President McKinley. This was craftily 
stimulated by the elements interested to "shelve: 
him." He himself went as a delegate at large from 1 
New York, his first appearance in a National Con- • 
vention since the famous Blaine Convention, sixteen 1 
years before. His presence in the Convention city 
was hailed with enthusiasm. Delegation after dele- 
gation waited upon him, to offer support, which he 
emphatically refused. In the mood of the hour, 
his refusal was without effect. Sometimes with tears 
in his eyes, he begged his callers to spare him; 
but in vain. Meanwhile, the New York politicians 
were saying that he must be nominated, for if he 
ran for Governor they would not be able to raise 
money for the election among the corporations. 

In the Convention, the Rough Rider-Governor, 
in his favorite soft black hat, was the lion of the 
scene. He made a speech, nominating McKinley, 
but when the Vice-Presidency was reached he was 
absent from the hall. He had yielded to the over- 
whelming demand, in his old spirit of accepting 

160 



GOVERNOR AND VICE-PRESIDENT 

whatever service he was called upon to do. While 
the Convention was roaring his nomination by 
acclamation, he sat in a near-by room, reading 
Thucydides. 

Into the great national campaign which followed, 
Governor Roosevelt entered with as much heart as 
if he had sought the task which he had undertaken 
so reluctantly. Everywhere, all over the land, the 
people were eager to see and hear him. For eight 
weeks he was on a speaking tour, visiting twenty- 
four states, travelling more than twenty-one thou- 
sand miles, delivering nearly seven hundred speeches, 
before audiences aggregating in number three million 
persons. 

His endurance was wonderful. This he owed to 
the iron constitution which he had built up in years 
of rough toil, and to his careful habits on the journey, 
nstead of wasting his voice and energy in conversa- 
ion with his companions on his special train, he 
made it a rule, the moment he left a station, to turn 
to a good book selected from those he had brought 
with him from his library, and to devote himself to 
its pages until called out at the next stopping-place 
on his route. 

m 161 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



He was not always in a friendly country. In a 
Colorado mining town, where the opposition to the 
Republican position on the coinage issue was bitter, 
he was attacked by some rowdies and struck with 
a stick. His escort of Rough Riders quickly closed 
around him, and, forming a wedge, rushed through 
the mob to the waiting train. A member of his; 
party, in describing the scene, said of Mr. Roose- 
velt's bearing at the time: "Rocks were flying over* 
him but he was smiling and his eyes were dancing. 
He was coming ahead as composedly as if he were 
approaching the entrance of his own home among; 
friends. When it was all over, he exclaimed: 'This, 
is magnificent. Why, it's the best time I've had since 
I started. I wouldn't have missed it for anything.' ' 
The Governor of Colorado also received Mr. Roose- 
velt in a hostile manner and wrote him, demanding- 
that he state his opinion on the question of the cam- 
paign in Denver as he had done in the East. If the 
Colorado Executive thought that this would be tooj 
much for the courage of the candidate for Vice- 
President, his mistake was quickly corrected, Mr. 
Roosevelt declaring, " I am for a protective tariff, the 
gold standard, expansion, and the honor of the flag. 

162 



GOVERNOR AND VICE-PRESIDENT 

In the triumphant election of McKinley and 
Roosevelt, no one gainsaid the large share of credit 
that belonged to the Vice-President-elect, while the 
enemies of the latter flattered themselves that his 
career was at an end, for the Vice-Presidency had 
been a political tomb, from which no man had 
escaped in more than sixty years. 



163 



CHAPTER XVII 

CALLED TO THE PRESIDENCY 



September 6, 1901, assassination of President McKinley. — Sep- 
tember 7, the Vice-President hastens to his stricken chief. — 
September 10, reassured by the doctors, he joins his family in 
the Adirondacks. — September 13, the unexpected message, 
announcing a change for the worse, reaches him at Mt. Marcy. — 
The long race through the night down the mountain roads to the 
special train. — Death of McKinley, September 14, at 2 a.m. — ■ 
Roosevelt speeding to Buffalo. — At 3.30 in the afternoon, he 
takes the oath of office at the residence of Ainsley Wilcox. — An 
affecting scene. — The new President's solemn pledge to the 
country. 

Mr. Roosevelt had been Vice-President only 
six months, when, by the death of President McKin- 
ley, he was suddenly called to the chief magistracy 
of the nation. 

His term as Governor of New York expired on 
New Year's Day. Taking advantage of the brief 
release from official duties, he went on a hunting 
trip in Colorado. After his inauguration as Vice- 
President, he presided over an extra session of the 
Senate, at the end of which he entered upon the 
uneventful life usually led by his predecessors. His 
great popularity brought him many urgent invita- 

164 



CALLED TO THE PRESIDENCY 

tions to speak, and he delivered several addresses in 
various parts of the country. He was on a speaking 
tour, when the appalling news sped over the wires 
that, for the third time, an American President had 
fallen before the assassin's bullet. 

While President McKinley was holding a recep- 
tion to the public in the Temple of Music on the 
grounds of the Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo, 
he was shot by a young man, brought up in his own 
state of Ohio, who carried his weapon beneath a 
handkerchief wound round his right hand. The 
Vice-President hastened to the city in which his 
stricken chief lay, and there joined the official asso- 
ciates of the President. After a period of anxious 
watching, they were reassured by the doctors, and 
left Buffalo in the cheering confidence that the suf- 
ferer would speedily recover. 

Mr. Roosevelt went to the Adirondack Mountains, 
in the upper part of New York, where his family 
had gone for the benefit of two of the children, who 
had lately been in a hospital. His purpose was to 
take them home in a few days. Early in the morn- 
ing of the day following his arrival, he went on a 
tramp, with some young friends, far up the side of 

165 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



Mt. Marcy. When they reached the lovely lake, 
"Tear In the Clouds," the loftiest body of water in 
the state and the lonely source of the Hudson River, 
a cold rain began to fall. Sitting there, looking upon 
the topmost peak of Marcy, Mr. Roosevelt and his 
party were tempted to climb still higher by the hope 
that they might get beyond the clouds and see the 
sun shining. They found, however, that the rain 
grew more disagreeable the farther they went. 

They returned, therefore, to the shore of the lake 
to eat their luncheon. As they sat down they heard 
the sound of the snapping of a twig, and looking 
around saw a man emerge from the forest, waving 
a yellow envelope. 

"The President's condition has changed for the worse. 

"Cortelyou." 

Thus ran the message in the yellow envelope. Mr. 
Roosevelt rose from the luncheon, without tasting 
the food, and said: "I must go back at once." It 
was then 2.15 in the afternoon of Friday. The long 
tramp through the tangle of the primeval wood 
began immediately and at the quickest possible pace. 
The messenger had been four hours in covering the 

166 



CALLED TO THE PRESIDENCY 

distance, and it was 6.30 at night when Mr. Roose- 
velt arrived at the little settlement of summer cot- 
tages where his family was staying. There was 
no telegraph or telephone wire there, and he de- 
spatched a runner to the nearest one, ten miles below. 

His position was most trying. He wished to 
avoid the appearance of an indelicate haste in re- 
turning to Buffalo. Yet he could not be careless 
of his grave duty under the Constitution. Even 
then the nation might be without a chief. 

It was nearly midnight when the messenger re- 
turned from the distant telephone, and he bore a 
message saying, "Come at once." In ten minutes 
the Vice-President tossed his suit case into a light 
vehicle, drew his hat down upon his head, and told 
the driver to go at full speed. He must ride through 
the night more than thirty miles down the mountain 
roads to reach the railway. The first part of the 
drive was along a mere trail. On one side stretched 
a steep bank down to the shores of a chain of little 
lakes, twenty to thirty feet below. On the other 
side rose the rugged mountain, which the wagon 
must hug or run the risk of tumbling into the water. 
Often the wheels would scrape against the rough 

167 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



boulders or huge stumps, or drop into deep mud- 
holes nearly to their hubs. A heavy fog made it 
impossible to see the road. The driver himself, used 
though he was to the way, hesitated to drive fast, 
but his passenger insisted, "Go on; go right ahead." 

Daylight came while they were yet hurrying on. 
It was 5.20 when the Vice-President leaped out upon 
the station steps at North Creek, only to learn that 
William McKinley had died at two o'clock that 
morning. 

The Vice-President found his secretary, Mr. Loeb, 
at North Creek, with a special train in readiness. 
The journey across the state began at once. Every 
effort was put forth by the railway men to cover the 
distance in the shortest possible time. At least one 
of the miles was made in forty-two seconds. The 
sympathetic people along the line knew the meaning 
and mission of the hurrying train. No one, however, 
could know the crowding thoughts of Theodore 
Roosevelt in the solitude of his mountain drive and 
of his eight hours within the curtained car of his 
special. No one could share with him the great 
responsibilities thus thrust upon him in a night. 

From Mt. Marcy to Buffalo it is four hundred 

168 



CALLED TO THE PRESIDENCY 

and forty miles. The Vice-President arrived at the 
latter place early in the afternoon of Saturday. 
Driving to the home of a personal friend, he found 
the Cabinet of the dead President awaiting him. 
For thirteen hours and a half the government had 
been without a constitutional head. The awful 
spell of the national tragedy was upon the company, 
numbering about forty persons, which was gathered 
in the library of the house. Greetings were ex- 
changed in silence. 

"Mr. Vice-President," said Secretary Root, the 
ranking member of the Cabinet present. Then his 
voice broke and tears blinded him. By a strange 
fortune this was the second time that Mr. Root had 
taken part in such a scene. As a friend he had stood 
with Vice-President Arthur, twenty years before, 
when, on the death of President Garfield from an 
assassin's wound, he was sworn in as President. 

The Secretary of War told Mr. Roosevelt, in 
broken tones, that it was the wish of the Cabinet, for 
reasons of state, that there should be no further 
delay. All around him men were weeping. The 
Vice-President said : " I shall take the oath at once 
in accordance with your request, and in this hour of 

169 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



deep national bereavement. I wish to state that it 
shall be my aim to continue, absolutely unbroken, the 
policy of William McKinley for the peace, prosperity, 
and honor of our beloved country." Then, as Judge 
Hazel read, a few words at a time, the Vice-President 
repeated after him the simple but solemn oath which 
all the presidents from Washington have taken: 
"I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute 
the office of President of the United States, and will, 
to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and de- 
fend the Constitution of the United States." 

By sheer force of will the Vice-President sum- 
moned the strength to pronounce his pledge to his 
countrymen in a voice without a tremor. At the 
end of the oath he added, "And thus I swear." His 
uplifted hand fell to his side, his chin rested on his 
breast, and the twenty-fifth President of the United 
States stood in silent prayer. 

President Roosevelt's first thought was for the 
sorrowing widow of the late President. He did all 
that a tender solicitude for her could suggest, and 
toward the friends of Mr. McKinley he showed 
every consideration. He went to Washington on the 
funeral train and thence to the burial at Canton, Ohio. 

170 



CHAPTER XVIII 



GRASPING THE REINS 



The new President confronted with the most difficult task in Ameri- 
can politics. — Called by death to fill the place of a President 
chosen by the people. — Failure of other Vice-Presidents in the 
Presidency. — President Roosevelt's unparalleled success in 
making a Roosevelt Cabinet out of a McKinley Cabinet and a 
Roosevelt administration out of a McKinley administration. — 
He retains the friendship of Senator Hanna, the Warwick of 
the old administration. — The country's confidence quickly 
won. — He proves his right to leadership. 

The task of the new President was the most diffi- 
cult one that can fall to a man in American politics. 
He had received his commission from the hand of 
Death and not from the people. They had chosen 
another for the place less than a year before, and by 
the largest majority that any President ever had 
received. 

When his life had been so cruelly cut short, 
William McKinley's popularity was at flood tide. 
North and South, East and West, had been knit 
together in their affection for him. He and his party 
were in a harmony such as few Presidents had known. 
His administration was associated with an abound- 

171 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



ing national prosperity. The confidence of the 
business world was centred in him. In an instant 
he was struck down and a new hand must take 
the reins of power. 

History offered Theodore Roosevelt no encourage- 
ment. Four Vice-Presidents had become Presidents 
before him, and none of them had succeeded in mak- 
ing his administration acceptable to the people. 
John Tyler had taken the place of William Henry 
Harrison, and in a short time he was plunged into a 
bitter war with the party which had elected him. 
Millard Fillmore, in filling out the term of Zachary 
Taylor, lost the support of a majority of his party. 
Andrew Johnson, in Abraham Lincoln's place, came 
within one vote of being turned out of the White 
House on articles of impeachment. Chester A. 
Arthur, who succeeded James A. Garfield, failed to 
win the indorsement of his party. Each of them had 
been unable to overcome the fact that he was Presi- 
dent by accident and not by choice of the people. 
All of them were denied an election to the office, 
and retired with a disappointed ambition. 

President Roosevelt took timely warning from 
those examples in political history. He not only 

172 



GRASPING THE REINS 



pledged himself to continue President McKinley's 
policies, but he announced his purpose of retaining 
the latter's advisers. "I wish each of you gentle- 
| men," he said to the Cabinet, "to remain as a mem- 
ber of my Cabinet. I need your advice and counsel. 
I tender you the office in the same manner that I 
would tender it if I were entering upon the discharge 
of my duties as the result of an election by the people, 
with this distinction, however, that I cannot accept 
a declination." 

There was no doubt that he was sincere in this 
request and in his intention to cling to the policies 
of the McKinley administration. People realized, 
however, that he was a very different man from 
Mr. McKinley in manner and method. It was 
feared, therefore, that the men who had worked 
with McKinley would not be able to work with 
Roosevelt. The members of a President's Cabinet 
are of his political household. They are like a 
family in their intimacy. 

Old observers were certain that a McKinley Cabi- 
net never could become a Roosevelt Cabinet, and 
that its members would soon retire from their offices. 
Moreover, the new President, many assumed, would 

i73 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



break with the McKinley men in Congress and all 
over the country. He was known to be a man with 
opinions of his own, and therefore it was reasoned 
that when he tried to put his opinions into practice 
the friends of the old administration would rebel. 

Mr. Roosevelt's first achievement as President 
was to disappoint all those forebodings of evil. He 
pursued at Washington the methods which had 
brought him success at Albany when he was Gov- 
ernor. His caution and self-restraint in the opening 
months of his administration won the confidence 
and good-will of his associates. In the end they 
became as loyal to the new President as they had 
been to the old. The McKinley Cabinet became a 
Roosevelt Cabinet and the McKinley administration 
throughout became a Roosevelt administration. Mr. 
Roosevelt was able to wield with success the instru- 
ments chosen by another. 

There were individual changes from time to time, 
but no more than usual. President Roosevelt found 
John Hay at the head of the Department of State, 
and there he remained until he died, ably working 
with his new chief to forward the interests of the 
United States in all parts of the world. He found 

i74 



GRASPING THE REINS 



Elihu Root in the War Department, and retained his 
services until his private affairs made his retirement 
necessary. When he was needed, however, to fill 
the vacancy occasioned by Secretary Hay's death, 
Mr. Root responded to President Roosevelt's call 
at as great a sacrifice of income as any man ever 
made to enter a Cabinet. 

The new President found Mr. Taft governing the 
Philippines, by Mr. McKinley's selection, and he 
summoned him to a Cabinet place. He found Mr. 
Knox in the Attorney-Generalship, and he success- 
fully employed his talents in the prosecution of law- 
breaking corporations. He found Mr. Hitchcock 
in the Interior Department, and he waged through 
him an unrelenting warfare on the robbers who were 
stealing the public lands. He found Mr. Wilson 
in the Department of Agriculture, and there he has 
stayed until he has the record of the longest con- 
tinuous Cabinet service. Even Mr. McKinley's 
Drivate secretary, Mr. Cortelyou, continued to hold 
:he same confidential place under Mr. 'Roosevelt 
mtil promoted to the Cabinet. 

It was impossible that any one should have with 
i man of President Roosevelt's temperament the 

i75 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



authority and influence which Senator Hanna of 
Ohio exerted with President McKinley. The Sena- 
tor had been regarded as the power behind the 
throne, a power greater than all the Cabinet could 
wield. It was expected that he would not see this 
power slipping out of his hands without a struggle 
to hold on to it. For several years there were rumors 
of serious troubles between Mr. Hanna and the suc- 
cessor of his great friend. As often as the report 
went forth, it was contradicted by the fact, and the 
friendly intercourse of the two men continued until 
the Senator's death. 

He was "Uncle Mark" to Mr. Roosevelt, and 
almost every week, even when their relations were 
supposed to be most severely strained, the President 
enjoyed a breakfast of corned beef hash and griddle 
cakes at Mr. Hanna's table. Almost, if not the last, 
letter written by the Senator was addressed to Mr. 
Roosevelt in grateful acknowledgment of his kind 
attentions. "You touched a tender spot, old man," 
the dying Senator wrote, "when you called personally 
to inquire after me this morning. I may be worse 
before I can be better, but all the same such drops 
of kindness are good for a fellow." 

176 



GRASPING THE REINS 



Senator Hanna, like the members of the Cabinet, 
had found the new President, not the rash young 
man that most of them expected, but a statesman, 
sobered and steadied by experience, quick of thought, 
but slow to act, who was always open to advice, and 
never above taking it. As they saw him wield the 
great powers of his office with a firm and skilful 
hand, their confidence grew and was communicated 
to the country. No one ever called him "His 
Accidency," the taunt so often flung at the other 
Vice-Presidents whom fate had thrust into the White 
House, because at the outset he proved his right to 
leadership. 



177 



CHAPTER XIX 

THE NEW PRESIDENT AND THE PEOPLE 



The youngest of the chief magistrates. — Popular imagination 
stirred by his swift rise. — The most thoroughly national man 
ever in the White House; the East and the West, the North 
and the South, all claim him. — The first President since the 
Civil War too young to remember its sectional bitterness. — 
President Roosevelt's own story of how he became a complete 
American. — The country delighted with his vim, his enjoy- 
ment of public honor, and freedom from pretence. — Refuses 
to shut the door of hope on any man because of race or color. — 
Dines labor leaders, but refuses to let either unions or trusts 
dictate to him. — A man who gets things done. — His trust in 
the people and their trust in him. 

The people liked the novelty of a new kind of 
President in the White House. In the first place, 
President Roosevelt was invested with the charm 
of youth. He was forty-two when called to the 
Presidency, and therefore several years the junior 
of the youngest of his predecessors, General Grant. 
He was still more youthful in spirit. 

The popular imagination was stirred by the swift- 
ness of his rise. Less than four years and a half 
before, he was as far removed from the usual line of 
presidential succession as the New York police com- 

178 




Copyright, IU04, by The Mail and Express Co., New York 



"He's good enough for me!" 

A memorable cartoon 



THE NEW PRESIDENT AND THE PEOPLE 

missionership, and was saying to a friend, "You may 
consider me politically dead." It was only four 
years since he was a mere assistant secretary in a 
department at Washington. Within the space of 
three years, fortune had crowded into his life a ser- 
vice in war, the governorship of New York, the Vice- 
Presidency, and now the Presidency of the United 
States. 

He was the first President with a long lineage since 
Washington, and the wealth of his family was far 
older and greater than that of Washington. The 
Roosevelts had been able to keep their heads above 
water in the social swim of New York for at least 
half a dozen generations. The plain people wel- 
comed the momentary change from the line of log- 
cabin presidents to a President who was born in a 
brown-stone front. The children of poverty had 
been taught by the example of Abraham Lincoln 
that they, too, might make their lives sublime. Mr. 
Roosevelt's fellow-citizens welcomed the example 
which his rise set before the scions of the rich, who 
might learn thereby that the republic has work for 
all who are not above taking off their coats and 
doing it. 

179 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Mr. Roosevelt marked another departure from 
custom. He was a writer of books, and as a rule 
Presidents have been the least bookish of men. He 
alone had spanned the wide gulf between literature 
and political success. 

The new President was the most thoroughly na- 
tional man who ever sat in the White House. No 
American ever lived the life of his nation more com- 
pletely than he had lived it. The East claimed him 
as its own because of his Eastern birth and educa- 
tion. The West claimed him because of his en- 
thusiastic love of Western life, because he had 
worked and played in its boundless fields. Even 
the South, which had not seen one of its own citizens 
chosen President in more than half a century, could 
claim him as a grandson. In him the sections were 
united, innocent of the old estrangement, for he was 
in petticoats in 1861, and was the first President since 
the Civil War who was too young to have had a part 
in its bitterness. 

Himself well-to-do and college-bred, the cultivated 
and the prosperous felt they had a kinsman in the 
White House; indeed, that we had "a gentleman for 
President." At the same time he had toiled hard 

180 



THE NEW PRESIDENT AND THE PEOPLE 

in his ranching days, and the toilers felt he knew 
them and respected their lives of labor. In an 
address, delivered not long before he became Presi- 
dent, he sketched his own broadening development: 
"The first time I ever labored alongside and got 
thrown into intimate companionship with men who 
were mighty men of their land, was in the cattle 
country of the Northwest. I soon grew to have an 
immense liking and respect for my associates ; and 
as I knew them, and did not know similar workers 
in other parts of the country, it seemed to me then the 
ranch owner was a great deal better than any Eastern 
business man, and that the cow puncher stood on a 

i' corresponding altitude to any of his brothers in the 

1; East. 

"Well, after a little while, I got thrown into close 
relations with the farmers, and it did not take me long 
before I had moved them up alongside of my beloved 
cowmen and made up my mind that they really 
formed the backbone of the land. Then, because 
of circumstances, I was thrown into contact with 
railroad men; and I gradually came to the conclu- 
sion that these railroad men were about the finest 
citizens there were anywhere around. Then, in the 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



course of some official work, I was thrown into close 
contact with a number of carpenters, blacksmiths, 
and men in the building trades, — that is, skilled 
mechanics of a high order, — and it was not long 
before I had them on the same pedestal with the 
others. 

"By that time it began to dawn on me that the 
difference was not in the men, but in my own point 
of view, and that if any man is thrown into contact 
with any large body of our fellow-citizens, it is apt 
to be the man's own fault if he does not grow to feel 
for them a very hearty regard, and moreover grow to 
understand that on the great questions that lie at 
the root of human well-being, he and they feel alike." 

This is the story by himself of how Theodore 
Roosevelt, scion of the Knickerbockers, became a 
complete American. He had in truth passed through 
a rare training school and thoroughly fitted himself 
to be the President of all sections and of the whole 
people. Nothing has more powerfully aided him in 
his leadership than this varied experience among 
his fellows. It has not only enabled him to know 
how to tell them what he thinks, but it has enabled 
him to know what they think. No one can say how 

182 



I 



THE NEW PRESIDENT AND THE PEOPLE 

often, in the crises of his administrations, he has 
found his strength and reliance in his conviction 
that "he and they feel alike." 

The people liked, from the start, his plain way of 
saying what he had to say, and they could under- 
stand what he meant. He seemed to talk like a 
man in the street. His youthful vim, his directness, 
and his freedom from the mere show and pretence 
of official dignity pleased them. Presidents usually 
hold somewhat aloof and hedge themselves in. Mr. 
| Roosevelt's bearing, on the other hand, was no dif- 
ferent in the White House than when he was Assist- 
ant Secretary of the Navy or Police Commissioner 
of New York. Every one felt that he could get at 
him and have a hearing at court. The public liked 
his frank enjoyment of the honors and duties of 
the Presidency; he did not put on the air of being 
bored by the highest office in the land and by the 
applause of his countrymen. 

These were the manners of the new President which 
attracted his fellow-citizens to him. Their confidence 
and admiration were won by his deeper virtues of 
independence and justice. They delighted to see 
their President take the leadership of the nation and 

183 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



refuse to let any one, whether a political boss or 
a financial magnate, intimidate or snub the chief 
magistrate of the republic. 

"The door of the White House," he announced, 
"shall swing open as easily for the poor as for the 
rich, and not one bit easier." He kept his word. 
It swung open for Booker T. Washington, the 
president of Tuskegee College, black though he was. 
Mr. Roosevelt wished to have a talk with that fore- 
most representative of twelve million Americans, 
and, as his habit is with all sorts of men, he asked 
him to dine at the White House. At this there arose 
a great outcry. The incident was seized upon to 
stir Southern prejudice against the President. 

He calmly ignored it and went on his way, appoint- 
ing white men of character, who were not of his party, 
to high offices in the South, when the Republicans 
down there did not offer him men as good. Nor did 
he hesitate to appoint a black man when his merits 
warranted it. "I cannot consent," he said, "to take 
the position that the door of hope — the door of 
opportunity — - is to be shut on any man, no matter 
how worthy, purely on the grounds of race or color." 

He dined labor leaders with as much honor as he 

184 



THE NEW PRESIDENT AND THE PEOPLE 

paid to captains of industry. Nevertheless, when a 
man was dismissed from the government printing 
office because he did not belong to a labor union, 
the President reinstated him. He said that the 
government of the United States could not bar a 
man from employment because he was a non-union 
man any more than because he was a Jew or a 
Christian, a black man or a white man. "I will 
not for one moment submit to dictation," he plainly 
served notice, "by the labor unions any more than by 
the trusts, no matter what the effect on the Presiden- 
tial election may be. I will proceed upon the only 
plan possible for a self-respecting American Presi- 
dent, and treat each man on his merits as a man." 

There were reports of corruption in the Post Office 
Department. The general impulse among the 
officials and the politicians was to deny the report 
and "hush the matter up" lest it might "hurt the 
party." The President at once ordered a searching 
investigation and a clean sweep of the guilty. Some 
of his subordinates could not believe that he really 
meant in good earnest to expose rascality in his own 
party and he had to talk plainly to a good many of 
them in order to convince them that he was not 

185 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

bluffing. In the end the wrong-doing was stopped 
and the wrong-doers were placed in the dock. In- 
stead of hurting his party, the President had won for 
it the credit of reforming these abuses. There was 
no issue left for the opposition party. Toward the 
powerful men, high in the party, who were found to 
be stealing the public lands, he pursued the same 
policy. He would not spare them because of their 
party standing and because they had seats in Congress. 
In tests like these the President constantly drew 
the great body of the people, the justice-loving, 
right-thinking American people, nearer and nearer 
to him. His efficiency excited their admiration only 
less than his fairness and independence. They saw 
that he was a man who knew how to get things 
done. He settled the coal strike, the Alaskan boun- 
dary dispute, broke up the postal and land frauds, 
successfully prosecuted the great railroad merger, 
and secured from Congress the legislation he recom- 
mended. "Trust the people" ever had been a 
familiar phrase in the mouths of men in politics. 
No one ever trusted the people more than President 
Roosevelt. He put his trust in them in every emer- 
gency, and they did not disappoint him. 

186 



CHAPTER XX 

AS A POLITICIAN 



The new President astonishes the country by his capacity for 
political leadership. — Some remarkable prophecies by Cleve- 
land, Harrison, and others. — Mr. Roosevelt's absolute reliance 
on the people. — Travelling fifty thousand miles in four years 
and explaining his policies in every state and territory. — Narrow 
escape from death in an accident. — Characteristic instances 
of his consideration for others. — His skill in wielding the 
mighty force of public opinion overwhelms opposition in 
Congress. — His frank avowal of his candidacy. — June 23, 
1904, unanimously nominated for President by the Republicans 
at Chicago. — A campaign free from uncertainty. — November 
8, 1904, elected by the largest plurality in history. — The 
vote: Roosevelt, 7,623,486; Parker, 5,077,971; plurality, 
2,545,515. — In the electoral college: Roosevelt, 336; Parker, 
140. — His unexpected announcement on election night of his 
determination not to run again. — March 4, 1905, inaugurated. 

The country was surprised to find the new Presi- 
dent a politician. The politicians themselves were 
taken quite unawares by his capacity for practical 
political leadership. Because he was known as an 
opponent of tricks and intrigues, they had set him 
down as an artless innocent, a simple novice in 
politics. They quickly learned, however, that the 
new man in the White House was as wise a politi- 
cian as ever entered its doors. 

187 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



A few prophets, indeed, had foretold this. In the 
beginning of his career, when it is said that Roscoe 
Conkling saw in him only a "dentificial young man 
with more teeth than brains," another observer, 
Andrew D. White, of Cornell University, is quoted 
as saying to his students: "Young gentlemen, some 
of you may enter public life. I wish to call your 
attention to Theodore Roosevelt, now in our Legis- 
lature. He is on the right road to success. It is 
dangerous to predict a future for a young man, but 
let me say. that if any man of his age ever was pointed 
straight for the Presidency, that man is Theodore 
Roosevelt." Governor Sheldon of Nebraska recalls 
a similar prophecy, made only a few years later, 
when he was at Harvard. Professor Albert Bushnell 
Hart, as the Governor recollects, predicted that Mr. 
Roosevelt would be President. 

A foreigner was gifted with equal foresight. This 
was Baron Speck von Sternberg, who was an attache 
of the German Legation in Washington when Mr. 
Roosevelt was a Civil Service Commissioner. "I do 
not pose as a prophet," the Baron has said, "but 
when I first met Mr. Roosevelt I was deeply im- 
pressed with his powerful personality, his untiring 

188 



AS A POLITICIAN 



energy, and essential sincerity of purpose. It was 
this combination which convinced me that some day 
I should see him at the head of this great nation. 
When I congratulated him on his appointment as 
Police Commissioner of New York, I added: — 

"< When I again congratulate you, you will be one 
step nearer the White House.' On hearing of his 
appointment as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, I 
wrote from Pekin, where I was then stationed : — 

"Permit me to congratulate you on this second 
step nearer the Presidency.' When he was elected 
Governor of New York, I telegraphed him : — 

'"The next time I offer congratulations it will be 
to President Roosevelt.'" 

President Harrison was also among the prophets, 
for he wrote in 1898: — 

"Mr. Roosevelt is to-day one of the best examples 
of Presidential timber in the country. His varied 
life as ranchman, hunter, soldier, and politician has 
placed him in such close proximity with so many 
different men that they have had ample opportunity 
to judge of his qualities and to understand him when 
he says or does a thing." 

Before that forecast was made, President Cleve- 

189 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



land had given an equally significant estimate of the 
man. Mr. Cleveland and Mr. Roosevelt, although 
of opposing parties, had worked together at Albany, 
when the former was Governor and the latter a young 
member of the Legislature. When Mr. Cleveland 
became President for the second time, he found Mr. 
Roosevelt serving as a Civil Service Commissioner. 
There was pressure upon him to displace this Re- 
publican member of the Commission, and President 
Cleveland is said to have replied : — 

"You do not know Theodore Roosevelt. I do, 
and I tell you that he is one of the ablest politicians 
either party ever had and the ablest Republican 
politician in this generation. The country will find 
this out in time. If I keep him where he is, he can't 
do us any harm ; if I remove him and make a martyr 
of him, he has political ability enough to do us 
serious damage. I shan't remove him." 

It is known that in the trying hour when Mr. 
Roosevelt took up the burden of the Presidency, 
nothing else gave him quite the comfort that he 
derived from the sympathy and confidence which 
ex-President Cleveland communicated to him. When 
the two men stood beside the bier of McKinley, in 

190 



AS A POLITICIAN 



the rotunda of the Capitol, the new President sought 
out the ex-President, and with genuine emotion said : 
"I shall always deem it a high honor to have served 
under President Cleveland." 

One more prophecy of Mr. Roosevelt's future is 
well worthy of mention. In this instance Thomas 
B. Reed was the prophet. He was Speaker of the 
House at the time, and, in a conversation with Mr. 
Lacey, a new member of Congress from Iowa, re- 
garding men in Washington, the members of the Civil 
Service Commission came up for discussion. 

"We've got an American of blood and iron — a 
coming man — on that Commission. I tell you, 
Lacey, you want to watch this man, for he is a new- 
world Bismarck and Cromwell combined, and you 
will see him President yet." 

"Who is he?" Mr. Lacey asked. 

"Theodore Roosevelt," the Speaker replied. 

Not many, however, had such insight into the 
qualities of the new President. He was expected 
to be a headstrong, rough-riding President, who 
would try to gain his point by hard fighting with 
Congress and with the political leaders. People 
generally looked for an honest but a stormy adminis- 

191 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



tration and in the end a disorganized Republican 
Party, broken up into quarrelling factions. Nothing 
of the kind happened. 

Discarding secret trades and dickers with this man 
and that, with one interest and another, the President 
adopted the completest publicity. He at once put 
himself into the closest communication with the 
thought and feeling of the country. When he wished 
a thing to be done, he plainly told the people and 
asked them to help him. He would always turn to 
them first, and they were his chief reliance. He would 
advocate his policies in frequent messages to Congress 
and in speeches in various parts of the country. 

In the first four years of his Presidency he travelled 
more than fifty thousand miles and visited every state 
and territory in the Union. While on a Western tour 
he went fourteen thousand miles by rail, one hundred 
and fifty miles by horseback, and walked two hundred 
miles. In the course of that trip he delivered three 
hundred and eighty-five speeches in twenty-five 
states and territories. Naturally in so much jour- 
neying he was more than once involved in accidents. 
His narrowest escape was while crossing an electric 
car line in Massachusetts. 

192 




Z 



AS A POLITICIAN 



The President was in a carriage with Governor 
Crane and Secretary Cortelyou, when an electric 
car, running at high speed, crashed into their vehicle. 
Others in the party, who were following in carriages, 
were certain that he must have been killed. Before 
they could reach him, however, they were relieved 
to see him rise from the wreck of his carriage and 
start toward the motorman with clenched fists. 
Doubtless his first hot impulse was to wreak personal 
vengeance on the man. In a second the thought of 
the law came into his confused mind, and he ex- 
zlaimed, "You should be arrested for this!" and 
:hen, as his sense of justice asserted itself, he quickly 
idded, "unless you lost control of your car." 

Another moment and the recollection came to him 
hat he was President of the United States, and, to 
>revent the spread of a false alarm over the country, 
| le turned to one of his assistant secretaries and 
aid, "Go at once to the nearest telephone, call up 
he Western Union Telegraph office in New York, 
sll them that there has been an accident, but that 
am not hurt." 

Death had come very near to him, indeed, for his 
scret service man on the seat with the driver had 
o 193 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



been killed outright. The member of Congress from 
the district in which the accident had occurred ac- 
companied the President to a neighboring house 
and said to him, as he seated him there, "Thank ; 
God, you escaped !" The two men were alone and I 
the President replied simply, "I thank God that I[ 
escaped death — I want to live and go on with myl 
work, but I do not think I fear death — I know thatt 
I do not fear death as much as I do that I may make 
some mistake affecting the welfare of this country." 

Soon another carriage was provided, and, as the 
President rode away from the frightful scene, a 
reaction came in his spirits, and he exclaimed to the* 
Governor, "Well, John Hay came mighty near being: 
President, didn't he?" Mr. Hay was Secretary of 
State, and as such was next in the line of succession 
to the Presidency. 

Notwithstanding the occasional peril and the con- 
stant discomfort, the President delighted in hisi 
travels and in the great crowds that came out to I 
meet him. He was as happy as a boy to ride on the I 
locomotive, and, with his genuine and hearty liking 
for his fellow-men, he never wearied of the enthusi- 
astic greetings which awaited him everywhere. 

194 



AS A POLITICIAN 



"Take that man out of Texas," exclaimed a Texan 
editor, of the opposition party. "He'll win every 
vote in the state. It isn't that he's President. Any 
man can get to be President when the people don't 
see the candidate they are voting for. But Roose- 
velt could be elected constable of any town in this 
state. He campaigns next to the ground." 

While touring in the state of Maine, almost the 
first thing the President said, as he started for Ban- 
i gor, was that he hoped he should see Bill Sewall, 
his old guide and friend from Island Falls. He 
'had hardly left his car when he inquired if any 
[one had seen Bill in town. As he entered his car- 
riage he asked the chief of police to hunt up Bill. 
Finally the member of Congress from the district 
came to him and said: — 

" Mr. President, here is an old friend of yours." 

The President turned and looked into the smiling 
(face of Bill Sewall. He grasped his hand, he clapped 
jhim on the shoulder, and he told him how glad 
She was to see him. Then he told it to him all 
over again. 

"You're no gladder than I be," said Bill. 

It was a great day for Bill. He rode in state in 

i95 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



the Presidential procession and the people cried out 
as he passed, "Hello, Bill," and "How are you, Bill ?" 

"Aren't you glad you came ?" the President ex- 
claimed, as he saw Bill sitting among the notables 
on the platform at the big meeting. 

" I was glad I came before I left home," was 
Bill's dry reply. 

All day Bill was an honored guest, and in the 
evening he sat among the dignitaries at the dinner 
which Senator Hale gave the President in his 
spacious home in Ellsworth. After Bill had re- 
turned to his home in the woods, the next day, the 
President was still filled with pleasure over their 
reunion. He told every one on his train all about 
Bill. " He is as simple and unaffected as a child," 
he declared. " He would like me just as well if 
I didn't have $10." 

In Cambridge Mr. Roosevelt's old washerwoman 
in his Harvard days was so sure that he would 
remember and welcome her, that she went to the big 
house in which he was a guest. The police tried 
to convince her that her errand was useless, but she 
persisted so confidently that finally she was per- 
mitted to see the President, who greeted her by name 

196 



AS A POLITICIAN 



and as cordially as any lady whom he met. "It was 
very kind of you," he said to this faithful and happy 
friend, "to come over to see me for old times' sake." 

The President and Mrs. Roosevelt made a visit 
to his mother's old home in Georgia. 

"This is Auntie Grace," a lady said to the Presi- 
dent, as she led up an aged negro woman, bent 
under the weight of laborious years. 

"Mom Grace, you mean, don't you?" the Pres- 
ident quickly asked. " I have always heard her 
called Mom Grace." 

"Yes, sah," said Mom Grace, as her wrinkled 
face beamed with pride, " dis am Mom Grace, 
Miss Mittie's nuss; and you was Miss Mittie's son." 

" Yes, Mom Grace, I am Miss Mittie's son and 
I am certainly happy to see you. Where is Daddy 
Williams ? " 

Then an old man was presented to the President, 
an old slave in the family of Mr. Roosevelt's 
mother, and he was greeted heartily. Afterward, 
when the Presidential party was about to be pho- 
Jtographed, Mr. Roosevelt made the photographer 
wait until Mom Grace and Daddy Williams were 
r ladded to the group. 

197 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



Wherever he would go he was on the same good 
footing with all. Out West two old Indians, whom 
he knew in his ranching days, presented themselves, 
and smiled as broadly as the solemn red man can 
when he recognized them and grasped their hands. 
A characteristic instance of his consideration for 
others was noted at one stopping place of the Presi- 
dential train. A forlorn little girl, in a threadbare 
coat, stood on the very outskirts of the pressing crowd 
about the station, a picture of despair because she 
could not get nearer the President. Mr. Roosevelt 
spied her disappointed face while he was speaking. 
As soon as he had finished, he leaped into the throng 
and parted it, as he made his way to her side and 
seized her hand, though the train was moving away 
and he must run to catch it. 

The President set his Cabinet at work to help him 
in spreading the doctrines he preached and its mem- 
bers were sent here and there to explain the purposes 
of the administration. He had not been in the Pres- 
idency a month, when, in a letter to a friend, he said] 
that his only desire to make a change in the McKin- 
ley Cabinet was to get more men who would be able 
to go before the people and champion his measures. 



AS A POLITICIAN 



Thus in the earliest stages of his power he planned 
to summon to his aid the greatest force in a free 
country, — public opinion. That was to be the 
foundation of his administration, and his success 
in wielding this mighty force soon overwhelmed all 
opposition. The first notable test came on reci- 
procity with Cuba. The nation was solemnly 
pledged to give that boon to the Cubans, and the 
President, in his first message, earnestly urged 
, Congress to grant it. The tariff lobby, however, 
was too strong and it killed the bill. The President 
was badly defeated. 

Then he went to the people. He argued the ques- 
tion with them, as the court of last appeal. He placed 
the issue before the constituents of the senators who 
had led the fight against him, and they were rebuked 
; in the platforms of their own state conventions. 
When the next session of Congress opened, the mem- 
bers came back, with instructions from home to 
i stand by the President. The leader of the lobby 
himself went to the White House and surrendered. 

This story has been repeated in every serious con- 
test which President Roosevelt has made. His 
fights have been fought out before the entire public 

199 






THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



and he has refused to be drawn into mere factional 
quarrels. He has been direct in his dealings with 
individuals, as he has been in his dealings with 
the country at large. He has told them what he 
wanted and why he wanted it. If a senator op- 
posed him, the President would have him at the 
White House as quickly as he could be brought 
there, and they would talk it over as man to man. 
He would not sit aloof at the other end of Pennsyl- 
vania Avenue wrapped in Presidential reserve while 
a misunderstanding might undo his plans at the 
Capitol. 

When the time came for the consideration of 
candidates for the election in 1904, he did not hide 
or dissemble his honorable ambition to be chosen 
by the people to the high office which had devolved 
upon him at the death of President McKinley. "I 
do not believe in playing the hypocrite," he wrote 
privately to a friend. "Any strong man fit to be 
President would desire a renomination and reelec- 
tion after his first term. It is pleasant to think that 
one's countrymen believe well of one. But I shall 
do nothing whatever to secure my nomination save 
to try to carry on the public business in such shape 



AS A POLITICIAN 



that decent citizens will believe I have shown wis- 
dom, integrity, and courage." 

Many interests and many political leaders longed 
to be rid of a President who made his pledges to the 
people instead of to them. This feeling was re- 
flected in Ohio on the eve of a state convention. 
One faction there was moving to indorse Mr. Roose- 
velt for the nomination, while the other insisted that 
the National Convention was a year off and that it 
was too early for the party to take its stand. Mr. 
Roosevelt was in the far West at the time, but he 
dictated a brief statement to the press, in which he 
plainly and candidly said that he wished to be 
nominated, and that he saw no reason why those who 
favored his nomination should not say so. 

That bold stroke settled the question. There was 
no further doubt or discussion. His nomination 
and his election became equally a foregone conclu- 
sion. When the National Convention met at Chicago, 
it was merely to go through the form of registering 
the unanimous wish of the Republicans of all the 
country. The campaign that followed was freer 
from uncertainty than any Presidential campaign 
before, within the memory of living men. The 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



opposition was left without an issue, and the only 
doubt was as to how many of its voters could be 
kept away from Roosevelt. 

His triumph in the election was complete and 
astounding. His majority on the popular vote was 
three times greater than any candidate ever had 
received. He polled seven hundred and fifty thou- 
sand more votes than the Republican congressional 
ticket. Everywhere he was stronger than his party. 
In four states, Massachusetts, Missouri, Minnesota, 
and Montana, which Roosevelt carried, the Repub- 
lican candidates for governor were defeated by the 
Democrats. He had received a more liberal com- 
mission from the people than they ever had given 
to a President, and even the bitterest of his polit- 
ical opponents joined in the well wishes of the 
nation. 

On the wires which brought him at the White 
House the tidings of his great victory, and of the 
national rejoicing, he sent to his countrymen this 
unexpected message: "I am deeply sensible of the 
honor done me by the American people, in expressing 
their confidence in what I have done, and have tried 
to do. I appreciate to the full the solemn responsi- 



AS A POLITICIAN 



bility this confidence imposes upon me, and I shall 
do all that in my power lies not to forfeit it. 

"On the fourth of March next I shall have served 
three and a half years, and this three and a half years 
constitutes my first term. The wise custom which 
limits the President to two terms regards the sub- 
stance, and not the form. Under no circumstances 
will I be a candidate for or accept another nomina- 
tion." 

The President's announcement was a great sur- 
prise to the public. Probably the tradition against 
a third term in the Presidency would not have been 
seriously urged by many persons against a second 
election for Mr. Roosevelt. By a somewhat forced 
construction of the tradition, he had chosen to deny 
himself the two elections by the people, which all 
successful Presidents have claimed and received. 
Whatever his motive for this act, it had the effect 
of lifting him in his new term of office above the 
suspicion of self-seeking. He had placed himself 
where no man could threaten him with a loss of 
future honors, or could doubt that his sole purpose 
was to serve his country. 



203 



CHAPTER XXI 

THE SQUARE DEAL 



How President Roosevelt has given it to all. — Rescuing the gov- 
ernment from the control of incorporated wealth. — His scorn 
of lawless money-getting. — His cautious and resolute attitude 
toward the big corporations. — Downfall of the great railway 
merger. — Railways and trusts brought into court. — Wield- 
ing the power of public opinion for the settlement of the Coal 
Strike, October 15, 1902. — Railway magnates refuse when the 
President asks them to cooperate with him in framing and 
passing a Regulation Bill. — Their defeat. — Law enacted, 
June 29, 1906. — The President's strategy. — The meat packers 
defy him and public opinion forces through the Meat Inspec- 
tion Law, June 30, 1906. — The Pure Food Law enacted, June 
30, 1906. — Locking up United States senators. — "This 
government never shall be a plutocracy." 

"The labor unions shall have a square deal, and 
the corporations shall have a square deal, and, in 
addition, all private citizens shall have a square deal." 
— Theodore Roosevelt. 

To rescue their government from the control of 
wealth, and to lift the dignity of their nation above 
the dollar, was the plainest commission which the 
American people gave Theodore Roosevelt when they 
elected him to the Presidency. His obligation was to 
them alone. It had been beyond the power of any 

204 



"THE SQUARE DEAL " 



i private interest, or of any class, to defeat him. All 
j the world knew what he meant by "the square 
deal." 

When he first entered the White House, he found 
| the government at Washington bound in a close 
'■ partnership with the wealth of the country, and the 
| government was only a silent partner. Wealth was 
i the controlling member of the firm. It had all come 
about in a very natural way. There had been a 
period of hard times a few years before, and, in the 
midst of it, the campaign of 1896 was fought on the 
question of restoring prosperity. The rich man 
was anxious for a full purse, and the poor man for a 
full dinner pail. Wealth had sided with the Repub- 
lican party and had poured forth millions in money 
to elect the Republican candidates, and they won. 

Thus the partnership began. Prosperity was the 
only watchword, and the President of the United 
States was hailed as its advance agent. Every policy 
was shaped to that one end. The great corporations 
directed the councils of the party in power, and no 
man in those councils ever ventured to question the 
measures adopted. No one wished to "disturb 
business." Laws were made and administered 

205 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



solely to "help business." The stock ticker became 
the pulse of the nation. Huge combinations of 
capital, great trusts and giant mergers, billion- 
dollar corporations, were the order of the day. 
"Napoleons of finance" dreamed of grasping con- ' 
trol of all the industries of the nation, and placing 
the factories and mines, the banks and the railways, 
in the hands of a few men. 

There were combinations so vast that they over- 
shadowed the national government, and their man- 
agers were paid salaries which made the constitu- 
tional emolument of the President seem a mere 
pittance. The presiding genius of Wall Street en- 
joyed a greater renown than the chief of state, and 
abroad he was more eagerly welcomed by kings and 
ministers than the accredited ambassadors of the 
Republic. Measures of government were well-nigh 
crowded out of the attention of the citizens by the 
dazzling gains and world-wide operations of a few 
private individuals. 

Suddenly there was a new force to be reckoned 
with. Theodore Roosevelt was President. He 
owed nothing to the kings of finance and the captains 
of industry. They had encountered him in the Gov- 

206 



"THE SQUARE DEAL " 



ernorship of New York, and had sighed with relief 
when they saw him "shelved" in the Vice-Presidency. 
They knew, however, that he was not their enemy, 
nor the enemy of prosperity, for there was no shock 
in the stock market when he became President. 
Nevertheless, it was known of all men that he stood 
in no awe of wealth and that he believed law and 
justice the only sound basis of national well-being. 

His scorn of lawless money-getting was a matter 
of record, for in his "American Ideals" he had 
arraigned it in these bitter terms: "The conscience- 
less stock speculator, who acquires wealth by swin- 
dling his fellows, and by debauching judges, and 
corrupting legislatures, and who ends his days with 
the reputation of being among the richest men in 
America, exerts over the minds of the rising genera- 
tion an influence worse than that of the average 
murderer or bandit, because his career is even more 
dazzling in its success, and even more dangerous in 
its effects upon the community." 

Strong as his opinions were on the subject, the 
new President did not adopt the methods of a 
fanatic, and begin a wild onslaught on the trusts. 
He was as cautious as he was resolute toward them. 

207 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



At the assembling of Congress, ten weeks after he< 
became President, he said in his message that the< 
first measure to be taken in regard to the great cor 
porations should provide for complete publicity as: 
to their affairs. He argued that this would correct 
many of the abuses and expose all of them. Then,i 
with the facts before it, the government would bei 
able to determine its future policy with justice and 
wisdom. After some delay Congress responded by 
establishing the Department of Commerce and 
Labor, and setting up within it a Bureau of Cor- 
porations, charged with the power and duty of 
investigation. 

In the following March the Attorney-General, by 
the direction of the President, brought suit for the 
purpose of having the Northern Securities Company 
dissolved as an unlawful combination. This com- 
pany was an enormous trust, formed for the control 
of certain great trunk lines of railway leading to the 
upper Pacific coast. Plans were all made for similar 
companies, or mergers as they were called, in other 
sections, and ambitious men were arranging to bring 
under their control virtually all the iron highways 
of the country. 

208 



"THE SQUARE DEAL" 



The governors of six northwestern states had asked 
President Roosevelt to attack the Northern Securi- 
ties Company, and he gave orders that it be prose- 
cuted without fear or favor. Wall Street could no 
longer direct the government at Washington by long- 
distance telephone. The reigning monarch of Ameri- 
can finance hastened to the White House to warn 
the President of the peril of "disturbing business"; 
but in vain. A powerful senator, formerly the am- 
bassador of the "business interests," asked the 
President to be careful. The wealth of the country 
had brought the administration to power, and the 
administration was bound by its obligations to the 
trusts. The President smilingly told the senator 
to read his letter accepting the nomination for Vice- 
President, and quietly assured his caller he would 
stand by that pledge and by no other. 

That was the parting of the ways between the 
government and the trusts. All the other great 
mergers were suspended while the battle raged in 
the courts for two years. The government scored 
a signal triumph in the end, and the Northern Securi- 
ties Company was ordered dissolved. No other 
railway trust has since been attempted, 
p 209 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



In the same month that this famous suit was 
begun, other suits were brought against individual 
railways and against big packing-house companies, 
for violations of the old anti-trust law, many of 
which were fought to a successful issue. While the 
laws already on the statute books were thus tested 
in the courts, the President started a campaign of 
popular education in the interest of further legisla- 
tion. In the fall of 1902 he made a speaking tour, 
in the course of which he argued, in moderate terms, 
for the governmental regulation of corporations 
doing an interstate business, and his sentiments 
were received with enthusiasm everywhere. 

All through the summer of that year a great strike 
raged in the anthracite coal-fields of Pennsylvania. 
Mining was almost entirely stopped, and, as the 
winter approached, the people of the East were 
confronted with a coal famine. Where it was pos- 
sible to get any of the fuel at all, the price was two 
and three and four times higher than the usual rate. 
The people were alarmed by the prospect, for it 
looked as if the strike would continue through the 
winter. The miners would not return to work 
unless the owners would agree to submit the claims 



"THE SQUARE DEAL " 



of their employees to arbitration, and the mine 
managers absolutely refused to consider the demands 
of the union. 

In this grave crisis President Roosevelt ventured 
to act. No law gave him any authority in the mat- 
ter, but he relied on public opinion to sustain him. 
He was suffering at the time from an injury to his 
leg, which he had received in the collision with the 
electric car in Massachusetts, but which had not 
manifested itself in a troublesome degree until 
weeks after the accident. With his wounded leg 
lying in a chair, he received the owners and the 
representatives of the miners, when they called on 
him by his invitation. With all the earnestness of 
his nature he begged them to arbitrate their differ- 
ences. Mr. John Mitchell, the president of the 
miners' union, said that he was, and always had been, 
ready for arbitration. The employers, however, 
insisted that there was nothing to arbitrate, and the 
conference broke up. 

The owners smiled triumphantly as they left the 
President in his disappointment, and talked bravely 
of continuing the fight. The spectacle excited the 
indignation of the country. The people resented 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



the attitude of the men who controlled the mines as 
an insult to the chief magistrate of the nation and a 
defiance of public opinion. Thus a force was 
aroused, which no power in the land can withstand, 
and within two weeks of the day that the owners 
had turned their backs upon the President they were 
assuring him that they would agree to arbitration, 
if only he would appoint the arbitrators. At once 
the men returned to the mines, and soon the com- 
mission of distinguished men selected by the Presi- 
dent was sitting in arbitration. It was an impressive 
exhibition of President Roosevelt's ability in em- 
ploying public opinion. 

Throughout his first term the President, 
without any flourish, but persistently, applied the 
laws as they stood to the railways and the trusts. 
In a few instances Congress strengthened the statutes ; 
and encouraged him in his work. At the outset of 
his second term, deriving his power now directly 
from all the people, he entered upon the task of 
getting new legislation. Before adopting any plan > 
of railway regulation he sought the practical advice 
of the leading railway men of the country and 
endeavored to gain their support of some just meas- 

212 



"THE SQUARE DEAL" 



ures of governmental supervision. In this effort he 
failed. The active railway officials, the presidents 
and traffic managers, it was understood, were inclined 
to cooperate with him, but their masters in Wall 
Street restrained them, confident that they could 
prevent any legislation whatever. 

There was a great fight in Congress, lasting through 
months. The President's strategy never was more 
severely tested. He demanded much more than he 
could possibly get, and probably more than he 
wished, and thus had something to concede in the 
game of give and take, which is the secret of suc- 
cessful statesmanship. In the end he led men who, 
in the beginning of the session, had opposed any 
regulation, cheerfully to accept the final modified 
bill, and it was passed by both houses almost 
unanimously. 

At the same session the President proposed a law 
for the inspection of meat packing. He had learned 
from a secret report that this immense business was 
often carried on under such filthy and dishonest 
conditions as to imperil the health of all who ate 
the products of the packing houses, and to cheat the 
purchasers. Again the President tried to gain the 

213 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



cooperation of the corporations, involved in passing 
a fair law. They defied him, as the railway mag 
nates had defied him. In these circumstances h 
was obliged to send the secret report to Congress, and 
spread its disgusting revelations before the world. 
Nothing further was needed. Public opinion com- 
pelled the immediate enactment of a meat inspec- 
tion law. A kindred statute, which the President 
successfully advocated at the same time, is known 
as the Pure Food Law, a law which was aimed at 
some of the oldest and most notorious abuses in 
American trade. 

Meanwhile, through the Department of Justice, 
he was dragging the mighty Standard Oil Company 
into court, and convicting railways and shippers, in 
the East and the West, for giving and taking un- 
lawful rebates. Through the Post Office Depart- 
ment he was adopting measures which would prevent 
the railways from any longer drawing out of the 
national treasury millions of dollars yearly in excess 
of their just dues for carrying the mails. A senator 
of the United States was convicted and imprisoned 
for attempting to influence an executive depart- 
ment contrary to the law, and another senator was 

214 



S 

; 



"THE SQUARE DEAL " 



convicted for joining in a conspiracy to steal the 
public lands. 

All these great transactions were done so soberly 
and in a spirit of such manifest fairness, that the 
very men whose practices were most affected by them 
found no chance to assail the motives of the Presi- 
dent. They could not dismiss him as a cheap 
demagogue or accuse him of being the enemy of 
honest wealth. Their fellow-countrymen knew too 
well that they were getting nothing more or less than 
a "square deal," and the American people stood 
by President Roosevelt in his declaration that "this 
government is not and never shall be a plutocracy." 

Party lines and party prejudices were overwhelmed 
by the general confidence in him and in his policies. 
The opposing political parties in Congress vied 
with each other in their support of all his principal 
measures of legislation. Democratic leaders could 
only protest that he had "stolen their thunder," 
while the masses of both parties, East, West, North, 
and South, well-nigh forgot their ancient differences 
as they rallied around a President whom they 
hailed as the President of the whole people. 



215 



CHAPTER XXII 



THE BIG STICK 



President Roosevelt's maxim is to "speak softly and carry a big 
stick." — A great peacemaker. — Secretary Hay's tribute to 
his diplomacy. — Directness and courtesy the characteristic 
qualities of the Roosevelt policy. — May 10, 1902, sending a 
representative to the Pope. — Saving the Arbitration Court 
at The Hague. — February 6, 1903, skilfully checks British 
and German bombardment of a Venezuelan port. — July I, 
1903, delivering to Russia, in spite of her protests, the petition 
against outrages on the Jews. — President Roosevelt's crown- 
ing victory. — June 12, 1905, ending the great Russo-Japanese 
War. — August 29, 1905, Russian and Japanese representatives 
agree at Portsmouth. — A triumph of peace, one of the noblest 
achievements of American diplomacy. 

"There is a homely old adage which runs, 'Speak 
softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.' If the 
American nation will speak softly, and yet build and 
keep at a pitch of the highest training a thoroughly 
efficient navy, the Monroe Doctrine will go far." 

— Theodore Roosevelt. 

That phrase, "a big stick," has gone round the 
world. Everywhere President Roosevelt has been 
pictured as the apostle of the big stick. The first part 
of the old adage was entirely lost on many people. 

216 



"THE BIG STICK " 



Nevertheless to "speak softly" is a very significant 
part of the Roosevelt policy. It is the only key to it. 
Leave it out, and you have a man who goes about 
like a bully, looking for trouble and spoiling for a 
fight. President Roosevelt, on the contrary, has 
always spoken softly, and never has had to use the 
big stick at home or abroad. And he has gone far. 

It is true that he is ever armed with a big stick. 
Generally, however, the weapon in his hand takes 
the form of a righteous cause, charged with the 
irresistible force of public opinion. Such was the 
big stick which he swung over the heads of the 
miners and operators in the coal strike, and he was 
enabled to go far in that instance. He had not a 
law nor a soldier behind him. Time and again it 
has served him in his contests with senators and 
bosses and with the magnates of the railways and 
the trusts. It has been equally effective in the rela- 
tions of this government with foreign nations. 

Many must look back with amusement upon the 
fear with which they saw President Roosevelt take 
the helm of the great ship of state. Those who 
assured themselves that he would not upset all our 
affairs at home, were alarmed lest he might seek to 

217 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



gratify his supposed thirst for warfare by plunging 
into strife with other countries. To a caller early 
in his administration, who earnestly begged him not 
to rush into an international conflict, the President 
smiled broadly. "What," he cried, "a war, and I 
cooped up here in the White House? Never!" 
Still conservative people for a long time felt that 
only John Hay, at the head of our State Department, 
stood between them and havoc. 

For four years they cherished this opinion, and 
then, when they saw the President, while the Secre- 
tary of State was absent in Europe on sick leave, 
win the applause of the world by his skilful and 
tactful arrangement of a peace between Russia and 
Japan, they learned for the first time that Mr. Roose- 
velt was the capable master of the State Department, 
as well as of all other departments. When Secretary 
Hay returned, and his chief told him how glad he 
was to have his help once more, he replied: "It 
looks to me, Mr. President, as if you don't need a 
Secretary of State." Mr. Hay's successor, Mr. Root, 
has said that Mr. Roosevelt himself holds the most 
important portfolio in the Cabinet — that of "Sec- 
retary of Peace." 

218 



"THE BIG STICK " 



Frankness, courtesy, and good faith have been the 
characteristic qualities of President Roosevelt's for- 
eign policy. He has never resorted to the old diplo- 
macy of indirection and deceit. Nor has he adopted 
what is sometimes termed the "shirt sleeve diplo- 
macy" of rudeness and bluster. " Don't draw unless 
you mean to shoot" is a maxim which he has 
brought from the frontier. He has simply tried to 
have this nation bear itself toward other nations 
as an honorable and well-bred man bears himself 
toward his neighbors. 

The people of the Philippine Islands most ear- 
nestly objected to the continued presence of the 
Spanish Friars, an order of Roman Catholic priest- 
hood, and to their large holdings of land. The Pope 
had the power to withdraw the Friars and to settle the 
question of their lands. But the government of the 
United States had no official relations with the Pope. 
That did not restrain President Roosevelt for a min- 
ute. The Pope was the man to see, and a repre- 
sentative was sent to the Vatican. The Pope readily 
consented to the recall of the priests and to the sale 
of their property. Thus the matter was adjusted 
quietly and sensibly, as between two gentlemen. 

219 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



The President refused to let himself be bound 
hand and foot in red tape abroad, no less than at 
home. Terrible outrages on Jews had been com- 
mitted in Russia, outrages which horrified the 
civilized world. Nevertheless, no voice was lifted in 
protest among the nations, because to do so would be 
contrary to the rules of diplomacy. Moreover, the 
Russian government had served notice that it did 
not care for any foreign advice on the subject. Jew- 
ish citizens called upon the President and begged 
him to forward a petition from them to the Czar, ap- 
pealing for mercy toward their co-religionists. The 
President asked them to bring their petition to him. 
He knew that Russia would decline to receive it, 
but he was determined that the government at St. 
Petersburg should be made to feel the moral weight 
of the document. 

The diplomats of Europe were amazed at this 
temerity. The American government would surely 
be rebuked, if it forwarded the petition, and the 
world wondered how it would bear the reproof. 
When the time came, the President merely sent the 
petition by cable to the American ambassador and 
instructed him to read it to the Czar's minister of 



"THE BIG STICK" 



Foreign Affairs and ask him if he would receive such 
a document. Of course the Minister replied that it 
would not be received, but not until the ambassador 
had read its contents to him. Russia thus was 
obliged to hear the appeal, and yet could find no 
fault with the President's conduct. 

It was the good fortune of President Roosevelt to 
give the peace tribunal at The Hague its first case. 
!The nations had organized that body with many fair 
promises and then had given it nothing to do. When 
it was about to perish of this general neglect, Presi- 
dent Roosevelt revived it by submitting to it a case 
known as the Pius claim, which involved the United 
States and Mexico. 

It was not long until he was able to give further 
evidence of his interest and confidence in the same 
method of settling international disputes. Ger- 
many and Great Britain joined in an attempt to 
compel Venezuela to pay certain claims they held 
against her, and their vessels of war bombarded a 
Venezuelan port. The President called upon them 
to submit their claims to a peaceful arbitration. 
The two nations replied that they would agree to 
his proposal if he would be the arbitrator. They 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



knew that it would be embarrassing for him to sit 
in judgment between European powers and a neigh- 
boring American republic, and no doubt they felt 
sure that he would be obliged to decline, and leave 
them free to seize some of Venezuela's ports. The 
President, however, politely referred them to the per 
manent court of arbitration which they had helpec 
to set up at The Hague for the settlement of jus 
such differences as those between them and Vene 
zuela. The two nations were loath to give up their 
warlike expedition, but they could not escape fron 
the logic of the suggestion from Washington, anc 
thus again the long-neglected tribunal at The Hague 
received a case through the President's favor. 

President Roosevelt's crowning victory for peace 
was achieved when, in response to his well-timec 
appeals, Russia and Japan turned from the great 
battlefields of Manchuria to the council table at 
Portsmouth. In the pride of his countrymen, his 
success in that instance stands as one of the noblest 
achievements of American diplomacy. 

It was on June 2, 1905, that the news went around 
the earth that the President had offered his services 
to promote peace between the two belligerents. He 







From Stereograph, Copyright !>y Underwood .v Undent 1. New York 



President Roosevelt and the Russo-Japanese Peace 
Envoys aboard the "Mayflower" 



"THE BIG STICK" 



appealed to each of them, in the name of a nation 
which had always been the friend of both and in the 
sacred interests of humanity, to bring the war to an 
end. In this momentous and delicate transaction 
his method was as direct and simple as if he were 
a private individual seeking to stop a quarrel be- 
tween two of his friends. The openness of his plea for 
peace instantly brought to his support the public opin- 
ion of all Christendom, united now perhaps as it 
never had been united before, and if either of the war- 
ring nations had spurned his counsels, it would have 
incurred a moral disaster. As a matter of fact, the 
conflict really had ceased the moment he lifted his 
hand. The immense armies paused, and the martial 
hosts of the Czar and the Mikado rested on their arms. 
No triumph of war could have stirred the pride of 
all Americans as it was stirred by the triumph of 
peace, which they beheld on August 5, 1905, when 
their President brought together on the deck of his 
yacht at Oyster Bay the representatives of Russia and 
Japan. In the weeks of negotiation which followed 
at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the world despaired 
time and again of an agreement between the two pow- 
ers. It seemed as if President Roosevelt alone never 

223 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



lost faith in the ultimate victory of common-sense. 

He was in a most delicate situation. The eyes of 
the nations were upon him, and he must answer to: 
all the jealous governments of Europe for the abso- - 
lute correctness of his conduct. The peace repre- 
sentatives were his guests, and if he should venture: 
to advise either party, he must do it without offence 
to the very tender sensibilities of the other. Re- 
peatedly he found a way to hold the conferees to- 
gether when they were about to part and abandon 
all efforts for peace. Now one of the Russians 
would be summoned to the President's summer 
home, and now one of the Japanese. At one time 
the Czar's ministers announced they were packing 
their trunks and going home. 

Amid all the passion and bluffing of the occasion, 
the President, sitting by his long-distance telephone, 
moved steadily and confidently toward the goal of I 
peace. When at last it became necessary, in order 
to save the conference from utter wreck, he ap- 
pealed directly to the Czar, and, on August 29, his 
reward came. Peace was agreed upon, and the< 
name of Theodore Roosevelt was written high on; 
the scroll of the world's peacemakers. 

224 



CHAPTER XXIII 

THE STRENUOUS LIFE 



Mistaken notions of the true meaning of this famous doctrine. — 
As exemplified by President Roosevelt it does not mean a noisy 
running up and down the earth, a life without repose, but an 
orderly life, organized to save time and to get the most out of 
living. — Mr. Roosevelt's wonderful capacity for work and play. 
— A pen picture of the man. — Some anecdotes of his athletic 
feats. — His wide range of reading. — Breaking the rule that 
Presidents shall not leave the country. — The trip to Panama, 
sailing November 8, 1906. — "The strenuous life" in the 
tropics. — Inspiring the men on the canal with a new patriotic 
determination. 

"I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, 
but the doctrine of the strenuous life — the life of 
toil and effort, of labor and strife; to preach the 
highest form of success, which comes, not to the 
man who desires mere easy peace, but to the man 
Jwho does not shrink from danger, from hardship, 
; or from bitter toil, and who, out of these, wins the 
splendid ultimate triumph." 

— Theodore Roosevelt. 

"The square deal," "the big stick," and "the 
strenuous life " are the three phrases which Presi- 
dent Roosevelt has embodied before the world. To 
Q 225 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

mention them is to call to the mind's eye the 
sturdy figure of the man who coined them. Some 
people, however, seem to regard him as the cham- 
pion of a restless and fruitless activity, of a nervous, 
noisy, senseless running up and down the earth, 
and of a life without repose and without reflection; 
a votary of St. Vitus. 

As a matter of fact, no active life could be more me- 
thodical, more orderly, than the President's. He keeps 
himself under the strictest discipline. He never 
smokes; his days are carefully planned and divided. 
He is regular in his eating and sleeping, in his work and 
in his play. But he has not a minute to lose or waste. 
Time is priceless to him. He has use for all there is. 

It is only by organizing his life that he has been 
enabled to bear so easily the burdens of power. 
They are burdens which have crushed some men. 
He has thrived under them. He has worn joyously 
the cares of the Presidency which have embittered 
other chief magistrates. Yet he has received more 
callers, entertained more guests at his table, read 
more books, written more letters, made more 
speeches, gone on more tours, and indulged inij 
more pastimes, than any other President. 

226 






"THE STRENUOUS LIEE" 



His capacity for work is the envy of his country- 
men. They never hear that he is too tired or sick 
to keep an engagement or meet an emergency. He 
stands before the world an example of rugged 
strength. In height he measures five feet nine 
inches. Nature was not generous to him in any way. 
Physically, he had to make himself what he is. His 
head itself is shaped for combat. Beneath a broad, 
full forehead, crowned with brown hair, his blue, 
near-sighted eyes look out keenly above the short, 
straight nose with its heavy nostrils, fitted to scent 
the battle afar. Between a pair of thick lips gleam 
the teeth in massive jaws which can snap like a 
spring trap. The neck is a short but sturdy sup- 
porter of the head, and rests upon athletic shoulders, 
which fit into the splendid, arched chest, whose forty- 
jsix inches are worthy of a gladiator's pride. His 
•hands are thick and short, and expressive of nervous 
'strength. The thighs of his short legs are sinewy, and 
the calves are like those of a pedestrian in training. 
(Even his feet, which are large, suggest the strength 
of the man, and he stands like one well anchored. 

His walking has become one of the recognized 
terrors of White House hospitality. An old Har- 

227 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



vard classmate, who had just come to Washington 
to take an office under the administration, joined 
him in his favorite afternoon tramp. After trudging 
breathlessly at the President's heels over a long and 
exhausting course, their path brought them to a pond. 
Night was falling, and the President, mischievously 
choosing to take the shortest way, placed his money 
and his watch in his hat, and plunged into the water. 
The new subordinate dutifully followed his chief, 
but while shaking his clothes on the other side he 
did venture to ask why such a damp route should 
have been taken. "What difference does it make ?'' 
the President asked. "It was the quickest way, and 
a little wetting does no harm." 

Another novice, who needed to be broken in, was 
made to scramble up a forty-foot bank after the 
President. It was a steep and difficult climb. No 
sooner were they at the top than the President said, , 
"Let's go down." 

" And, pray, what did we come up here for ? " 
the green beginner asked. 

" Just to see if we could do it," was the reason 
sufficient to the President. 

Once, walking along the shore of the Potomac, the 

228 




Copyright, l'.«>-\ by Clinedinst, Washington, D.C. 

President Roosevelt in the Saddle 



"THE STRENUOUS LIFE" 



President and his party came to a stone quarry 
which jutted out into the river and cut off the path. 
There was a boat at hand, to enable persons to get 
around the obstruction. Two of his companions 
jumped into it and motioned the President to a 
seat. "Meet me on the other side," was his reply, 
and, followed only by his son, Theodore, Jr., he 
crept across the blasted face of the rock, holding on 
by sticking his toes into the little clefts and clutching 
at others with his hands. 

One day, at the close of his office labors, he will be 
carried off to Maryland in an automobile, for the 
sake of walking back a dozen miles or so, not reach- 
ing home till 9.30. The next day will find him in 
his saddle for a twenty-mile course. As soon as he 
became President he asked a friend to find him two 
good riding horses for the White House stables. 
This gentleman felt the responsibility of his com- 
mission, and he took care that the President should 
not come to harm through horses selected by him. 
When the purchases were brought up for approval, 
the first horse stepped about gently and gracefully, 
as if to music in a parade. He wouldn't do at all. 
The second animal had a mincing tread, but the 

229 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



President did contrive to goad him into a gallop. 
When, however, he was driven up to a three-foot 
hurdle, he stopped and sniffed at it with mild curi- 
osity. His rider had seen enough, and, with a sigh 
of disappointment, he jumped off and threw the 
bridle to the groom. 

"Well, sir?" the groom said inquiringly. 

"Oh, for goodness' sake, send them back. I 
ordered horses, not rabbits." 

In the end he got what he wished, horses that 
combined spirit with gentleness, horses equal to 
long swings into the country, under the no longer 
light load of their master, and capable of taking a 
five-barred fence, as one of them is seen to be doing 
in a familiar picture of the President. 

There is hardly an end to the variety of President 
Roosevelt's athletic activities. He has built a good 
clay court back of the executive offices and often i : 
plays as many as seven sets at tennis with some 
member of the little group of congenial friends, who 
have been widely celebrated as "the tennis Cabinet." 
He is always ready for a bout with the swords, and 
early in his administration he took lessons in the 
famous Japanese exercise, Jiu Jitsu. Its useful- 

230 



THE STRENUOUS LIFE" 



ness so impressed him that he caused it to be added 
to the athletic training at the Annapolis and West 
Point academies. 

The strenuous life, however, is not all action, by 
any means. Few cloistered scholars read more 
than the President. He rests with a book in his 
hand. While waiting for an important conference 

j he was found holding an Italian text of Dante's "In- 
ferno" in one hand, and John A. Carlyle's prose 
translation in the other. He loafs with Plutarch, 
some of whose books he is said to have read a thou- 
sand times. 

A list of only a part of his reading for two years 

' of his Presidency is bewildering in length and range, 
including such a wide sweep of literature as repre- 
sented by Herodotus, Thucydides, Polybius, iEschy- 

I lus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, Aristotle, the 
"History of Greece," the "Life of Alexander the 
Great," MahafFy's "Study of the Greek World," 

i'Maspero on the early Syrian, Chaldean and Egyp- 
tian civilizations, Froissart, Marbot's "Memoirs," 

'Bain's " Charles XII," Macaulay, Gibbon, Motley, 
Carlyle, Bacon, Shakespeare, Drayton's Poems, Dante, 
Moliere, Beaumarchais, Oliver Wendell Holmes, 

231 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



Tolstoi, Scott, Cooper, Bret Harte, Mark Twain, 
Dickens, Thackeray, Conan Doyle, Lever, Keats, 
Browning, Poe, Tennyson, Longfellow, Kipling, 
Lowell, Stevenson, Hans Andersen, Joel Chandler 
Harris, Artemus Ward, and John Burroughs. 

In the midst of the crowded campaign of 1904 he 
read all of Macaulay's "History of England," 
Dickens's story of "Martin Chuzzlewit," and James 
Ford Rhodes's "History of the United States." The 
only thing that makes it possible for the President 
to read so much and so variously is his remarkable 
power of concentration. Nothing distracts him from 
the book before him. It becomes for the moment 
the sole business of his life, and he reads so swiftly 
that he finishes a volume in the time that the average 
reader bestows on twenty pages. 

It is little wonder that a President of such bound- 
less activity should have broken through the tradi- 
tion, as old as the Republic, against the chief execu- 
tive leaving the soil of the United States. This 
ancient precedent had been so studiously observed 
by Mr. Roosevelt's twenty-four predecessors that 
many people believed that Presidents were forbidden 
by a written law to visit a foreign country. Re- 

232 



"THE STRENUOUS LIFE" 



peatedly they had carefully turned back at Niagara 
Falls, at the last inch before the suspension bridge 
leaps across the invisible line between their country 
and Canada. Emperors and kings had called on 
Presidents, but their calls were never returned. 

When, however, President Roosevelt wished to 
see the Panama Canal in construction, he paid no 
more attention to the old legend than he would to a 
cobweb about his feet. This great national under- 
taking, which he had begun, is very near to his 
heart and pride. He is the director-in-chief of the 
work and he was tired of conflicting reports and sec- 
ond-hand information. He would see for himself 
what had been done and what could be done. 

The admiral's and the captain's quarters on the 
battleship Louisiana were thrown into a state suite 
for the comfort of the President and Mrs. Roose- 
velt. The wireless telegraph aboard kept him in 
constant communication with the White House 
throughout the voyage. He passed most of the time 
with his books; but he took occasion to inspect the 
big ship in every part. He ate one meal with the 
crew and he went down into the fireroom and 
shovelled coal into the monster furnace. 

2 33 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



Arrived at the Isthmus, he courteously declined 
a banquet in his honor. He had no time for any- 
thing but the canal. "I have come," he said, "to 
see how they are going to dig that ditch ; how 
they are going to build that lock; how they are 
going to get through that cut." Arrayed in a 
Panama hat and a white duck suit, he landed at 
seven o'clock in the morning, in the worst storm 
in ten years. He paid small heed to the tropic tor- 
rents which no waterproof coat could turn, for he 
is not a sunshine man. 

On the little railroad which runs beside the route 
of the canal he was surrounded by the chief officials, 
at whom he fired questions as if from a machine 
gun. His stenographer by his side took down 
questions and answers, and from time to time the 
President would dictate a section of his forthcoming 
report to Congress on the subject of his investiga- 
tion. Passing a schoolhouse that the Americans had 
set up on the strip of American soil ten miles wide 
through which the canal is to be dug, the train 
paused while the little children of many nations 
sang in their newly taught English, " My Country, 'Tis 
of Thee" and the "Star-Spangled Banner." The 

234 



"THE STRENUOUS LIFE" 



President beamed upon them with joy, and he praised 
their proud Yankee schoolma'ams by name. 

He politely excused himself from the fine luncheon 
which had been spread for him at the hotel, and 
made straight for the big mess hall of the mechanics. 
His party could only follow him at a distance, as he 
rapidly strode up the hill and into the rude dining 
room, where the men were eating. The flustered 
manager hurried away for a tablecloth, only to be 
called back by his unexpected guest, who said, 
"Just get the crumbs off this table here and go 
ahead." Then he popped into the kitchen. The 
head cook was overwhelmed with confusion. He 
was sorry things weren't picked up; but the Presi- 
dent assured him that he thought the place looked 
all right. Offered a "Panama cocktail" of quinine 
and brandy, he declined it, and instead took from his 
own pocket a two-grain quinine pill, which he had 
provided against the malarial weather. "Good 
as any one could wish," was his verdict when he had 
finished his hearty meal. 

The next thing to interest him was one of the 
monster steam shovels, picking up ten tons of earth 
at every bite. It fascinated him, and he climbed up 

235 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



beside the man who runs it, and who rose and spread 
a handkerchief in his seat. The President looked 
at the handkerchief and picked it up and handed it 
back to the man. Then he sat down and ran the 
machine. He asked the man if he had any griev- 
ance. Yes, he had; he had lost some extra pay. 
The chief engineer of the canal was summoned at 
once, and, seated on his grimy throne, the President 
heard the case. Another man stepped up and 
complained that he was underpaid. "Not paid 
enough ?" the President said, quizzingly. "You're 
not unique in that. Do you know that some in- 
telligent persons have even said that the President 
of the United States is not paid enough for his work ?" 

He went to the cooking quarters of the Jamaica 
negroes, who swarmed around him. He didn't like 
one thing about it. Turning to his stenographer, 
always at his side, note-book in hand, he said, "Cook 
shed — iron roof, good; floor, a swamp." 

"We are going to have a concrete floor," the 
Superintendent explained. 

"When? Why not now?" the President replied. 

After a few hours of inspection the President 
would find it necessary to change to dry clothing. 

236 



"THE STRENUOUS LIFE" 



He called on the President of the Panama Republic, 
who gave a reception in his honor. President 
Roosevelt was very gracious to all, but before he 
had finished his speech, which was translated for 
his audience, he took occasion to show the Panamans 
the "big stick." With flashing eyes, clinched jaws, 
and doubled fist, he warned them against the revo- 
lutionary habit, and plainly told them that unless 
their government could preserve the peace it would 
not last. 

For three days the President, drenched and be- 
splashed with mud, was ceaseless in his investiga- 
tions. At every point he was saying, "Yes, yes, 
but what I wish to know is — " He fired every man 
on the work with his own enthusiasm, and when a 
group of American machinists cried out at him, 
"Teddy's all right!" he replied, "You are all right, 
and I wish there were enough of me to say it with 
all the force I feel. Every man who does his part 
well in this work leaves a record worthy of being 
made by an American citizen. You are a straight 
out lot of Americans and I am proud of you." 

When the President sailed away, he left behind 
him a new feeling of loyalty and determination 

237 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



throughout the canal zone. The Americans there 
were no longer working for a mere wage, but for the 
glory of their country as well. Their patriotism had 
been aroused and their task lifted to a higher plane. 
They had seen an example of the "strenuous life," 
and had caught its spirit. 



238 




£ z 



CHAPTER XXIV 

THE PRESIDENT AT WORK 



How callers get to him in the executive offices and how he greets 
them. — Rushing times at a reception. — Mr. Roosevelt's 
welcome to men from his old Wild West and to the Carlisle 
Indian football team. — His weakness for his Rough Rider 
comrades amuses those around him. — How one member of 
his regiment lost favor. — Bill Sewall, the guest of the President. 
— The record of a busy day. — Five hundred to one thousand 
letters daily. — Mr. Roosevelt's story of the best meal he ever 
ate. — His interest in the birds in the White House grounds. — 
Squirrels that have no fear of "the big stick." 

No man of affairs in the country is more accessible 
than President Roosevelt. There are many presi- 
dents of little banks, there are obscure storekeepers, 
whom it is more difficult to see than it is to gain an 
audience with this President of eighty million people, 
this chief of a great world power. No lackeys in 
livery surround him, no divinity hedges him in from 
his countrymen. 

Two policemen stand at the door of the executive 
building in the White House grounds, but only to 
preserve order. Any one may enter and apply to a 
secretary for permission to speak to the President. 

239 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



Whoever has a fair reason for this request is ad- 
mitted to the reception room at the earliest oppor- 
tunity. When fifteen or twenty callers are gathered 
there, the door leading from the President's office 
opens, and the President bounds in, beaming with 
his genuine good-natured interest in his fellow-men, 
and, with a "Glad to see you," seizes the first hand. 
He does not stand or sit, in the usual Presidential 
state, but bears himself as if he were in his own 
home and receiving a group of personal friends. He 
has no time to waste, however, and is so quick to 
catch the point of each man's mission, that he is 
able to dispose of it before a long-winded visitor can 
get half through his introductory remarks. "Yes, 
yes," he will say; "I know you, and I am delighted 
to see you. But you must put your application in 
writing. Yes, put it in writing, and send it to me 
with your indorsements, and I will see what can be 
done for you." 

A whispering caller is put to the blush by the 
President's outspoken reply: "Oh, I know all 
about that. Yes, certainly I do. And I have no 
doubt you would fill the bill. But I don't know 
whether there is a vacancy. Don't you know that 

240 



THE PRESIDENT AT WORK 

it is impossible for me to keep all these things in 
my head ? Write out your application. Write it 
out and send it to me, with your indorsements. 
Come to see me again soon; good-by." 

Now he whirls across the room with outstretched 
hand: "Hello, Senator; how are you? I want to 
see you in my office. You know I am depending 
on you now as one of my main props." Turning 
about, his eye lights upon a man from Iowa, and his 
welcome rings out: "Hello, Colonel; I am glad to 
see you. How are my old friends in Davenport, 
and especially Miss French ["Octave Thanet"]? 
Tell her I read everything she writes." In a few 
minutes he has greeted and sent away all in the 
room, which thus fills and is emptied five or six 
times in the course of a busy morning. Whoever 
the caller may be, whatever his business and wher- 
ever he may come from, this very national President 
knows instantly how to meet him. To a Montana 
crowd, which he found waiting for him one day, he 
said as he entered the reception room: "If the 
proprieties did not forbid, a whole-souled yell from 
me would be in order in greeting you. Montana is 
like home to me. Your irrigation plans concern the 

R 24I 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



Red River district. I have hunted all over it, and I 
will do what I can for you." 

The President's Western life is probably respon- 
sible for his intelligent and effective interest in 
irrigation and in forest reservations. In his ad- 
ministration the great work of reclaiming the 
mighty waste places of the plains was begun and 
has been carried forward vigorously. Already 
homes have been made for thousands in what was 
formerly a desert. At the same time the President 
has rescued immense tracts of forest from the ruth- 
less axe of the greedy lumberman and saved the 
trees for the benefit of the general public and of 
the generations to come. 

The football team of the Indian School at Carlisle, 
Pennsylvania, came to the White House after a 
victorious game. "De-lighted!" exclaimed the Pres- 
ident as he grasped the big hand of the captain. 
"You're a good quarter-back, Johnson. The mass 
play of your team was splendid." Seizing the hand 
of another he said: "Your play was brilliant. You 
made three touch-downs, didn't you ? How in the 
world did you do it?" The President talked foot- 
ball with all of them, and sometimes he would enter 

242 



THE PRESIDENT AT WORK 



into a discussion of the points in their latest game. 
He asked nearly every one of them to what tribe 
he belonged. He knew the big chiefs of some of 
their tribes, and the red men smiled broadly when 
he spoke of their leaders. 

"De-lighted," as no doubt the President honestly 
is to come in touch with all sorts and conditions of 
men, the one variety of the human species for which 
he has an extra cordial welcome is the Rough Rider. 
"My regiment" is very much in his mind and very 
close to his heart. 

"Mr. President," said Senator Bard of California, 
according to a current story, "I wish to present to 
you my friend — " 

"Why, hello, Jim," the President cried as he 
recognized in the Senator's friend a man from the 
ranks of the Rough Riders; "how are you ?" 

The two men clasped hands heartily and the 
Senator was forgotten. When the President was 
obliged to turn to his other callers, he said, as he 
hastened away, "Come up to dinner to-night, Jim, 
just as you are;" and then, on second thought, he 
added, "Be sure to bring Bard with you." 

"Who's in there ?" the venerable Senator Cullom 

243 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



asked one day, with a jerk of his finger toward the 
door of the inner room of the President. "Some- 
body who was in the Rough Riders," an attendant 
answered. 

"Oh, well," the Senator sighed with a smile as he 
turned away, "what chance has a mere senator!" 

Often when there is a place calling for hazardous 
and faithful work, the President thinks of "just the 
man" for it among his Rough Rider comrades. 
Once he was happy to select a Rough Rider to be 
United States marshal on the frontier. His choice 
was opposed before the Senate. One Senator went 
to see the President and told him that the man was 
accused of being a hard drinker. 

"I know," the President answered. "He has 
told me all about that, and I have his word that he 
will not taste liquor while he holds a commission 
from me." 

Another Senator came and said it was reported 
that the nominee was a gambler. 

"I know," the President said. "He himself has 
told me all about that. You know we can't insist on 
the standards of the East for men out on the frontier. 
I have known many a good man there who in a 

244 



THE PRESIDENT AT WORK 



pressing emergency has taken up gambling as a 
livelihood. But I am sure that this man never ran 
a skin game of any kind, and he won't touch a card 
while he is marshal, for I have his word for that." 

Then another Senator came along. He was 
troubled because he had heard that the man was a 
rough character, who had lost an ear in a fight. 

"I know," the President said again. "He is not 
the smoothest character in the world, but you don't 
want an elegant gentleman to chase desperadoes 
and round them up." 

Finally, however, evidence was laid before the 
President that this man had served a sentence in 
prison. He could not believe it. But when he 
telegraphed him, the reply was a confession. The 
man had shrunk from laying bare that one chapter 
in his life, although if he had, the President probably 
would have stood by him loyally. Now he felt that 
he had been deceived. The Senate had confirmed 
the nomination, but the President tore up the com- 
mission, which lay on his desk. He could not 
brook deception. 

Theodore Roosevelt has the plain man's love of 
loyalty. After he had been Governor a little while, 

245 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



the negro messenger whom he had found in the 
Executive Chamber became the father of a boy, and 
he named him Roswell Flower in honor of his old 
master, Mr. Roosevelt's predecessor in the Gov- 
ernor's chair. He explained to his new employer 
that he did it because Governor Flower had been 
very good to him. The man's loyalty sealed his fate 
with Mr. Roosevelt, who not only kept him as the 
Governor's messenger, but also took him to Wash- 
ington as the messenger of the Vice-President, not- 
withstanding it was in violation of custom to have a 
negro messenger in the Senate. 

Bill Sewall was not in the Rough Riders, but he 
shared the rough life with Mr. Roosevelt on the 
ranch, and he is never forgotten. He and his wife 
were brought all the way from their home in Maine 
to be the special guests of the President. They were 
shown the sights of the city in a White House car- 
riage, under escort of a man detailed to entertain 
them. At the Capitol they occupied the President's 
section in the Senate gallery, and Senator Lodge, at 
the President's request, acted as their guide through- 
out the great building. Mrs. Roosevelt told Mrs. 
Sewall how often she had heard her husband sigh 

246 



THE PRESIDENT AT WORK 



for her cakes, and the President talked over old 
times with Bill. 

"The President is always just the same man," 
Bill declared while on his way home, "whether you 
see him in high society all dressed up, or in the 
woods, togged out in a buckskin shirt. He doesn't 
judge any one by the clothes he wears or by his posi- 
tion in life. He takes a man at his true worth. I 
know him, for I have slept under the same blanket 
with him." When the chance came, the President 
appointed Sewall to be the Collector of customs in 
his district. Some of the politicians had candidates 
of their own, but the President told them that they 
must let him have this one place, to do with it as 
he pleased. The Sewalls were not forgotten, either, 
when the daughter of the President was to be married, 
and they attended the ceremony at the White House. 

The President is not only true to his friends, but 
he can be just to his foes. No one, not even the 
Spaniards, aroused more wrath in Colonel Roose- 
velt's breast, at the time of the Spanish War, than a 
certain major in the quartermaster's department of 
the regular army. They had a little war between 
themselves. When this officer came up for the 

247 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 






highest promotion possible to him, his old antago- 
nist of the Rough Riders was President and com- 
mander-in-chief. The Rough Rider in Mr. Roose- 
velt wrestled hard with the chief Magistrate, but in 
vain. "I wish," said the President to a friend, "I 
could see my way out of giving that man his pro- 
motion. But I can't. He has a tip-top record in 
the Civil War ; he was quartermaster to Crook and 
Custer ; and he saw service in Cuba, China, and the 
Philippines. Every one indorses him except myself, 
and I guess I shall have to bow to the majority." 

In the President's extraordinary facility in de- 
spatching business, in the quickness with which his 
mind and body move, lies the secret of much of his 
remarkable efficiency. Before the caller, in stating 
his mission, comes to the point, the President's 
thought has swiftly reached it, and his decision is 
announced in a flash, which fairly takes away the 
breath of the visitor. If, however, any question of 
great importance is involved, there is no jumping to 
conclusions, no snap judgment. No President ever 
sought advice more freely than Mr. Roosevelt. He 
is not afraid to confide in men, and he will patiently 
talk over a serious matter with every one concerned, 



THE PRESIDENT AT WORK 



summoning men of information from thousands of 
miles away, and making sure that he has seen the 
subject from every point of view. 

When, however, the question is of a routine char- 
acter, he knows in an instant what to do, and does 
not hesitate to take the responsibility of settling it 
on the spot, once and for all. "Appoint him," 
"Tell him no," "Go to the Secretary of the Treas- 
ury," "Answer that I will go; record the engage- 
ment and arrange my trip with the railroads," — thus 
the President rushes the work that his subordinates 
bring him. 

He has an eye that is as quick as his thought, and 
it sweeps over a letter or the page of a book with an 
almost incredible rapidity. A Congressman will 
hand him a long type-written page. The President 
darts hardly more than a glance at it and hands it 
back. "Mr. President," the disappointed member 
will say, "may I not leave this with you? I am 
anxious that you should read it." 

"But I have read it. You may examine me in it, 
if you like." 

Another will submit a book to the President in 
the afternoon. That evening there may be a dinner 

249 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



party or a musicale at the White House, and the 
next morning the hours will be crowded with duties 
and callers. At luncheon the man will say, "Mr. 
President, of course you have not had time to look 
at that book." 

"Oh, yes," the President will answer; "I have 
read it," and then he will proceed to review it, to 
the astonishment of his guest. The chances are 
that he read the book while on his way to bed. 
Every minute is saved for some use. The country 
has been amused by the frequent reports of the busi- 
ness transacted by him, letters dictated and inter- 
views carried on, while his face was covered with 
lather and he was before his shaving glass. 

A record of one busy day runs thus: 7.30, the 
President rises; 9, finishes breakfast; 9-10, with his 
mail, a stenographer beside him; 10-11, receiving 
senators and representatives; 11 to 1.30, except 
on Cabinet days, which are Tuesdays and Fridays, 
receiving callers by appointment; 1.30, luncheon; 
2.30 or 3, callers by special appointment; 4, signs his 
mail and commissions (sometimes 400 of the latter); 
4.30, goes to walk or drive; 7.30, dinner; 9.30, often 
the most serious business of his day begins in his 

250 



THE PRESIDENT AT WORK 



library, for this is his first chance to be alone, and to 
study the matters awaiting action, free from inter- 
ruptions. 

A chief so efficient must have only efficient men 
around him, and he is fortunate in his secretary, who 
was with Mr. Roosevelt when he was Governor and 
when he was Vice-President. The President's senti- 
ments toward this faithful and tactful assistant were 
thus expressed on the fly-leaf of a book which he 
gave him : — 

To William Loeb, Jr., 
My Friend and Fellow-Politician. 

Theodore Roosevelt. 

It is the secretary's delicate duty, not only to 
stand between the President and his callers, but also 
between him and his numerous correspondents. 
The White House mail-bags bring from five hundred 
to a thousand letters a day, the number varying ac- 
cording to passing events. These letters are opened 
and unfolded by one man, while another then sorts 
them, sending as many as possible to the depart- 
ments, and referring the rest to the secretary, who 
answers most of them without showing them to the 
President. He does not see more than a hundred of 

251 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



the daily total. In handling the mail everything is 
opened by the clerks, even letters marked "per- 
sonal" and "private." The only communications 
treated as personal, and which reach the President 
unopened, bear in the corners of their envelopes the 
initials of known friends of Mr. Roosevelt, as for 
instance "H. C. L." for Senator Lodge. Even 
letters addressed to Mrs. Roosevelt and the children 
go through this sifting process, for many persons try 
to bring their wishes to the President's attention by 
indirection. 

The President is always the favorite object of 
letter-writing cranks, and whenever there is any- 
thing going on to excite their interest, they greatly 
swell his mail. Early in his administration the 
papers described the White House as overrun with 
rats, and immediately a stream of friendly advice 
poured in. The express brought the President a 
large variety of traps, and one citizen sent him five 
cats. 

Mr. Roosevelt's democratic indifference to social 
claims was well shown when he invited a party of 
labor leaders from the mines at Butte, Montana, to 
luncheon at the White House. While they were 

252 



THE PRESIDENT AT WORK 



lunching, the President apologized for not giving 
them as good a meal as one that he ate in their own 
town. "It was the best I ever had," he told them. 
"It was in 1885, and Jack Willis, a cowboy friend of 
mine, and I landed in Butte. Our remittances were 
delayed and we had just fifty cents between us. We 
were so hungry we could hardly see. Finally we 
found a twenty-five cent restaurant, — not a Chinese 
restaurant either, — and I never had a meal that 
tasted as well as that one, and I shall never forget 
Butte." 

Not only does the President have a cordial greet- 
ing for all under the White House roof, but he also 
gives a friendly welcome to the feathered visitors 
who probably never before received any presidential 
notice whatever. "A pair of red-headed wood- 
peckers," he records, "have nested for three years 
in the White House grounds, while the mocking-bird 
is to be found in several places within easy walking 
distance, though, sorry to say, it is not in the White 
House grounds. Neither is the wood thrush, but it 
is abundant out at Rock Creek Park, within the city 
limits. Robins, song sparrows, crow blackbirds, and 
cat-birds nest in the grounds. So, too, do crows, the 

253 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



enemy of all birds, and, as such, entitled to no 
mercy. The hearty, wholesome songs of the robins 
and the sweet homelike strains of the song sparrow 
are the first to be regularly heard in the grounds, 
and they lead the chorus. Two or three pairs of 
flickers nest with us, and a pair of furtive cuckoos. 
A pair of orchard orioles nested with us one spring, 
but not again; the redstarts, warbling vireos, and 
summer warblers have been more faithful. Balti- 
more orioles frequently visit us, and so do the scarlet 
tanagers and tufted titmice, but for some reason 
they do not nest here." 

One spring a cardinal had the audacity frequently 
to wake up the President by his early morning 
whistling in a magnolia tree just outside his chamber. 
A Carolina wren spent one winter in the White 
House grounds and sang freely. The society re- 
porters failed to note his presence and his musical 
performance, but the President has made grateful 
record of his entertainment. White-throated spar- 
rows serenade the President, fall and spring, in the 
course of their migrations. 

In the early spring, fox sparrows, and tree spar- 
rows, and snow birds have attracted his attention. 

254 



THE PRESIDENT AT WORK 



The rabbits, those redoubtable foes of race suicide, 
breed in the grounds, and now and then the Presi- 
dent has caught sight of a wandering possum. 
Gray squirrels are numerous, and some of them have 
so little fear of "the big stick," that they eat out of 
his hand. In the hot June days the indigo bird 
chants through the afternoon, and one June the 
President, as he sat in the star-lit darkness on the 
lovely south portico of the White House, often 
heard two little saw-whet owls snoring softly. 



255 



CHAPTER XXV 

LIFE IN THE WHITE HOUSE 



The President's faithful shadows from the Secret Service. — 
Saving the White House and making it a decent habitation. — 
Mrs. Roosevelt as a housekeeper. — Her two kitchens and two 
dining rooms. — How guests are entertained. — The White 
House under the Roosevelts no petty palace, but a true American 
home. — Mr. Roosevelt refuses to take precedence of ladies. — 
Washington shocked by his freedom from ancient customs. — 
The simple life at Pine Knob, down in old Virginia. — The 
President at church. 

President Roosevelt had the courage, at the 
outset of his administration, to take measures to 
defend himself from assassins and to make the 
White House a decent habitation. 

Three Presidents had been shot down because 
they had refused to protect themselves. More than 
a third of the chief magistrates of the republic in 
thirty-five years had been assassinated. The chosen 
chief of a free people for a brief term was in more 
peril of his life than any hereditary monarch of the 
Old World. 

It was a frightful record, and a shameful one, for 
America. Our land did not really deserve to out- 

256 



LIFE IN THE WHITE HOUSE 



rank Russia and Turkey as the breeding place of 
assassins. Our Presidents were murdered because 
they were the only chiefs of state in the world who 
were never guarded against the murderous lunatic 
seeking a shining mark. One protecting hand could 
have saved Lincoln, Garfield, or McKinley. It was 
a tradition of the Presidency, however, to have no 
guard, — to "trust the people." 

President Roosevelt was not afraid that his coun- 
trymen would think him a coward if he took a few 
simple precautions to prevent a recurrence of the 
tragedy at Buffalo, which had shocked the world 
jand stained again the history of the Presidency. He 
stopped the foolish and exhausting custom of whole- 
sale handshaking, which, after all, was only a vul- 
gar affectation of democracy. He took a detail of 
men from the Bureau of the Secret Service, and two 
of them have been beside him on all public occa- 
sions. They wear no uniforms, and their presence 
is not noticed by the people. One sits with the 
driver of any carriage in which the President rides, 
and when he addresses a meeting, the secret service 
men are between him and the crowd. If he goes 
for a horseback ride in Washington, a cavalry ser- 
s 257 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



geant, who is an expert horseman, tries to keep 
within fifteen paces of him. The people no more 
resent this simple escort than a man's honest neigh- ■ 
bors would take offence because he locked his door i 
against the thief in the night. 

Mr. Roosevelt not only had the courage thus to : 
protect himself, but he also believed that the people 
did not wish to condemn their President to live in 
shabby quarters. The White House in its pure, 
classic outlines is a noble dwelling. Sometimes 
through indifference, sometimes through fear of 
popular censure, Presidents had suffered it to fall 
into a neglected condition. There were thread- 
bare carpets, and it was infested with rats and 
mice. Its space was so poorly arranged that there 
was little privacy for the family of the President. 
The servants had to sleep in the cellar. The 
butcher's and the grocer's carts were driven to the 
front door, and the provisions were delivered at the 
same entrance at which ambassadors were received. 
The kitchen was in full view of the loungers and the 
passers-by. 

"Well, Mr. President," a senator is said to have 
remarked to President McKinley one morning, "J 

258 






LIFE IN THE WHITE HOUSE 

see you are to have Irish stew for luncheon 
to-day/' 

"Why," exclaimed the President, "how on earth do 
you know ?" 

"Oh, as I came in, I saw a party of sight-seers 
watching what was going on in your kitchen, and so 
I joined them, and saw your cook making an Irish 
stew." 

Mr. Roosevelt found the house so crowded with 
clerks and their offices that there were not sufficient 
accommodations for his family, and no opportunity 
whatever to practise the hospitality to which he and 
Mrs. Roosevelt were accustomed. Because of this 
lack of room it had been proposed from time to time 
to abandon the place as a residence for the Presidents. 
Mr. Roosevelt, however, had a reverence for its great 
associations. He said it was an inspiration to him 
to tread the halls through which the gaunt figure of 
Abraham Lincoln used to stalk. 

He planned to save the White House and make 
jit an agreeable home for the chief executive. An 
unsightly greenhouse at the right was torn away, 
and in its place a small office building was erected 
for the use of the clerical force. This left the Presi- 

259 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



dent's family in undisputed possession of the upper 
floor of the mansion. The lower floor, where the 
drawing-rooms and dining rooms are, was rear- 
ranged and beautified in accordance with the design 
of the structure, while half of the basement was 
divided into reception rooms, and a new entrance 
was made through a pretty terrace, which was built 
on the end opposite the office building. In this 
entrance twenty-five hundred hat boxes were placed 
for the convenience of guests on social occasions, 
while on its roof a pleasant promenade was provided. 
The old place was transformed, and yet without 
sacrificing any of its character. Where formerly 
guests had to stand in line until they could crowd 
through the narrow front door, and then, after much 
confusion, leave by a temporary bridge built through 
a window, they now enter at ease by the terrace, and 
are admitted to the roomy parlors in the basement, 
from which they ascend an imposing stair to the state 
floor, where they are received by half a dozen mili- 
tary aides, and presented to the President and Mrs. 
Roosevelt. When a guest leaves, he has only to 
hand to an attendant the slip bearing the number of 
his carriage, which he received on arriving, and I J 

260 




Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt 



LIFE IN THE WHITE HOUSE 

the number is flashed on an electric sign out in the 
street, where the waiting coachman can see it. 

Mrs. Roosevelt is a devoted and diligent house- 
keeper, and has left the impress of her taste and care 
on every part of the remodelled White House. She 
has two kitchens, one for the cooking of the daily 
fare, while the other is used only for the preparation 
of the large dinners. At such times a chef is called 
in, but ordinarily a woman cook and two helpers 
are equal to the requirements. Every up-to-date 
convenience has been installed, including an electric 
warmer, where three thousand plates can be warmed 
at once, and there is an electric dumb waiter which 
goes up or down at the pressing of a button. 

There are two dining rooms, the larger being used 
only for the state dinners, when nearly one hundred 
guests can be seated and served at the big table, 
which is in the form of a horseshoe. 

A guest bidden to a formal dinner at the White 
House finds in the dressing room in the basement, 
when he arrives, a small envelope addressed to him- 
self, which contains a card bearing the name of the 
ady whom he is to take into the dining room, and 
vith it a diagram of the table, with his seats indi- 
I 261 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



cated. The company assembles in the great East 
Room, and promptly at eight o'clock the President 
and Mrs. Roosevelt come downstairs from the family 
floor and enter the room. The President offers his 
arm to the lady who is to have the place of honor 
beside him at the dinner, and her husband escorts 
Mrs. Roosevelt. On the table electric lights gleam 
through the flowers, and the music of the Marine 
Band comes softly in from a distant part of the house. 
It has been said that these state dinners entail an 
average expense of $1000 each, which must be met 
out of the President's own purse, as no provision by 
law is made for his official entertainments. 

While President Roosevelt knows how to preserve 
the dignity of his station, he has refused to be bound 
by every social tradition which has grown up around 
the Presidency. He believes that the President of I 
the United States needs to be no more and no less 
than a gentleman in order to receive all the respect 
that is due him. "It is my endeavor," he said to 
a caller early in his administration, "to make the I 
White House during my term not a second-rate 
palace, like that of some insignificant prince, but the 
home of a self-respecting American citizen who hai . 

262 



LIFE IN THE WHITE HOUSE 



been called for a time to serve his countrymen in 
executive office." 

Feeling that his own breeding was good enough, 
he has refused to put on Presidential manners. 
For instance, there was an old rule under which 
he would take precedence of his wife. He rejected 
it at once, refusing to go through a door before 
any woman. Again, Washington was shocked one 
morning, not long after Mr. Roosevelt took office, 
to hear that the President had walked over to Senator 
Hanna's to breakfast. A President was supposed 
never to enter the door of any one outside the circle 
of his official family, the members of the Cabinet. 
Mr. Roosevelt, however, would not be a prisoner in 
the White House. One day he even dropped in at 

| the British Embassy and called on Lord Pauncefote. 

• That was almost treasonable in the eyes of the 

; tradition worshippers, for the Embassy was really 
foreign soil. Nevertheless they survived to see him 

1 sail away from the shores of the United States and 
pay a visit to the President of Panama. 

A story is told of the President joining some 
house painters, who were at work at the White 
House. 

263 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



" How much do you get a day ? " he asked one 
of them. 

"Three dollars and a quarter." 

"That's mighty good pay for such pleasant 
work." 

Taking a brush, he rapidly covered ten square 
feet and then said : — 

" I used to think I should like to be a painter. 
It always appealed to me because you can see 
something accomplished with each stroke of the 
brush." 

Free as the President is in the White House, he 
sometimes feels the need of a wilder freedom, and 
then he goes off to a little backwoods place which he 
has bought in Virginia. There, at "Pine Knob," 
he has fifteen acres, on which he has built a log cabin 
with half a dozen rooms in it. It is twelve miles from 
the railroad, and offers a snug refuge from the world 
for both the President and Mrs. Roosevelt whenever 
they can steal away for a few days. At such times 
the President hunts, and Mrs. Roosevelt delights to 
do as much of the housework and cooking as she 
chooses not to leave to her one negro servant on the i 
place. When Sunday comes, she and the President 

264 






LIFE IN THE WHITE HOUSE 



ride horseback to a church several miles away, and 
throughout their brief vacations in the Old Dominion 
they joy in the simple life. 

President and Mrs. Roosevelt have striven, in spite 
of traditions, to live their lives in their own way in 
the White House. Under their influence it has been 
an example before the world of an American home. 
They have made it the meeting place of all the talents 
of their time. Their roll of guests includes most 
of the men of action and achievement in all lines of 
work, ranging from railway presidents to the youth 
who has brought out his first book, from labor leaders 
to musicians, from clergymen to explorers. An 
interesting caller in the morning is likely to be asked 
to come back for luncheon, and the steward is for- 
tunate if he knows half an hour in advance how many 
plates to lay. These unofficial entertainments are 
distinguished for their ease and simplicity. 

Mrs. Roosevelt is a most gifted hostess, and one of 
the few mistresses of the White House so generously 
endowed with tact as to have escaped criticism. 
Her devotion to her family leaves no room for social 
ambitions, and her simple, sincere manners disarm the 
critics. Her hair is brown, her face fair, and her figure 

265 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



slender and of medium height. Visitors from foreign 
countries have remarked the linguistic accomplish- 
ments of the President and his wife. He is fond of 
exercising his German and French, and Mrs. Roose- 
velt speaks French and Italian with graceful ease. 
One of the few misrepresentations of his private 
life which has provoked a reply from the President 
was a newspaper story of the elaborate menus of the 
White House. This so stirred his indignation that 
he issued a statement in which he took the country 
into his kitchen confidence. "We eat exactly the 
same food," he declared, "as do all other American 
households." For luncheon he often contents him- 
self with a bowl of bread and milk, while "the 
children have cold meat (if there is any left over), 
tea, fruit, and bread." As for breakfast, the Presi- 
dent said he and his family enjoy their eggs and bacon 
and rolls and coffee; and as for dinner, instead of the 
sixteen-course menu with which they were credited, 
they content themselves nine times out of ten with 
a three-course dinner and the other time with a 
two-course one. "I do not feel entitled," the Presi- 
dent added, "to deny the last paragraph in the 
article, for all my children, it must be admitted, do 

266 



LIFE IN THE WHITE HOUSE 



know how to use knives and forks, they do keep 
their elbows off the table, and they bow their heads 
during the saying of grace." 

The President attends almost the plainest church 
in Washington, Grace Reformed Church, the nearest 
approach in the city to his ancestral denomination, 
the Dutch Reformed. Mrs. Roosevelt has a pew at 
St. John's Episcopal, and most of the children go with 
her. One of them, however, usually takes his 
father's hand, as he walks off briskly to his modest 
services, pursued by his shadows from the Secret 
Service. On entering, the President lays his gloved 
hand on the uncushioned pew post and bows his 
head in silent prayer. The deacons praise "Brother 
Roosevelt" for his promptness in attendance and for 
his friendly interest in the little church and the plain 
members of its congregation. He reads the responses 
with evident enjoyment and sings the hymns lustily. 

The pastor's pew is in front of the President's, and 
the pastor's eight-year-old boy and Mr. Roosevelt 
are great friends. "It's half my duty in church," 
he insists to the lad's mother, "to take care of 
Johnny. I don't know what he would do if I did 
not look out for him." Once when the President 

267 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



came back from his summer vacation at Oyster Bay, 
Johnny asked after the Roosevelt boys. "I don't 
know how they are," the President replied, "for 
when I last saw them they were eating green apples." 

The President reserves one room for himself in the 
White House. It was formerly the Cabinet room, and 
this is where he is most at home. There he is sur- 
rounded with a large variety of characteristic keep- 
sakes, — a belt of cartridges, a sword, a Russian re- 
volver which Admiral Togo sent him, the candlestick 
used in sealing the treaty of peace between Japan 
and Russia at Portsmouth, and many original draw- 
ings of cartoons relating to himself. One of these 
represents a keen-eyed American farmer, gray-haired 
and shaggy-bearded, with his stocking feet on a foot- 
rest before a fire, and a lamp at his elbow, by the light 
of which he is reading the President's message. 

"That's the old boy I am working for in the White 
House," President Roosevelt enthusiastically ex- 
plains to a caller whose attention has been attracted 
to the cartoon. "The future of this nation rests 
with him. He will never ask to have the laws set 
aside. He will never use dynamite as an argument. 
He is a true American." 

268 



IF 




CHAPTER XXVI 

LIFE AT OYSTER BAY 



There alone the President is really at home, amid the scenes of 
his boyhood, where three generations of the Roosevelts have 
played. — Sagamore Hill and its trophies of the chase. — 
Oyster Bay, as the "summer capital," where a clerical force 
from the White House is busily employed. — The naval reviews. 
— Going down in a submarine boat. — The peace in the great 
war between Japan and Russia made at Oyster Bay. — The 
President's distinguished guests and his pastimes. — Chopping 
trees and pitching hay. — Feathered visitors whom the Roose- 
velts welcome. 

Oyster Bay is where President Roosevelt really 
lives. What Mount Vernon was in Washington's 
time, what Monticello was in Jefferson's, Montpelier 
in Madison's, the Hermitage in Jackson's, Linden- 
wald in Van Buren's, Wheatland in Buchanan's, 
and what Gray Gables was when Cleveland was 
President, Sagamore Hill is to the nation in our day. 
It is the President's snug harbor, his haven from 
the tempests which forever beat upon the White 
House. 

Oyster Bay is home to the President more than 
I any other spot on earth. His grandfather first dis- 

269 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



covered it for the Roosevelts, and built him a stately 
summer home there, which he named "Tranquillity." 
His son succeeded to the place, and in due time his 
grandson, the President, built his home near-by at 
Sagamore Hill. All around are the scenes where as 
a boy he played and dreamed a boy's dreams. In 
the bay he learned to swim, and in the groves round 
about he gained his first lessons in nature. He 
points with pleasure to the place "where three 
generations of Roosevelts have raced down the steep 
slope of Cooper's Bluff," and all the coves and hills 
and hollows are as old friends. 

The President's place contains hardly a hundred 
acres, and not more than twenty acres are under any 
kind of cultivation. The simple but roomy house 
sits on a great knoll, where it overlooks a glorious 
stretch of Long Island Sound and the Connecticut 
shore beyond. The first story is of brick and the 
rest of the structure is shingled. Within are spacious 
halls and rooms, big fireplaces, walls lined with books, 
and floors strewn with the skins of the bears and 
mountain lions, panthers, and buffalo, which the 
master of the place brought back from the chase, 
while over mantels and doors are magnificent heads 



270 



LIFE AT OYSTER BAY 



of elk, and deer, and antelope, and Rocky Mountain 
sheep, all personal souvenirs of "the strenuous life." 

Fond as he is of play, Mr. Roosevelt, more than any 
other President, takes his work with him when he 
leaves Washington. Oyster Bay actually becomes 
the summer capital of the nation. Executive offices 
are opened over a store in the village, and a clerical 
force is kept busily employed. Several hours each 
day are given by the President to despatching the 
correspondence and other public business brought 
to him by his secretary, and to holding interviews 
with those who call by appointment. Strangers must 
first present themselves at the office in the village; 
and Secret Service men, on guard day and night at 
Sagamore Hill, see that no one without the proper 
credentials is permitted to trespass on the President's 
time. 

Oyster Bay, being a suburb of New York, only a 
few miles from the boundary of the city, and an 
hour's ride from its centre on the express, receives 
a constant stream of official and political visitors. 
The eyes of all the world were upon it throughout the 
long summer, when the President was making peace 
between Japan and Russia, from Sagamore Hill. 

271 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



There he received the embassies of the two warring 
powers and brought them together, and thither 
he summoned first one and then the other of them, 
when their negotiations were threatened with wreck. 
Hardly a day passes without visitors and affairs of 
importance. Great naval reviews have been held 
by the President off the shore of Oyster Bay, and 
it was from a wharf there that he made his secret 
trip, unknown to his family, in the submarine boat 
Plunger. He was on her three hours in all, and at one 
time was under water for fifty minutes, going down 
to the bottom of the Sound, where he sat as cozy as 
could be, listening to the explanation of the boat, 
wholly innocent of the sudden storm which was 
sweeping the surface of the water above him. 

Distinguished guests are nearly always to be found 
at the President's table at Sagamore Hill. Mr. 
Jacob Riis tells of his going there to complain that 
a rule had been adopted by the War Department, 
discontinuing the custom of having the names of 
private soldiers who were killed in the Philippines 
cabled home. The reports merely dismissed the 
matter by saying that so many unnamed privates had 
fallen. Mr. Riis's chance to speak of the matter did 

272 



LIFE AT OYSTER BAY 



not come until he was at luncheon. General Corhin 
was present, and the President at once turned to him 
and asked, "General, is there such a rule?" 

"Yes, Mr. President," he answered. 

"Why?" 

"The Department adopted it, I believe, from mo- 
tives of economy." 

"General, can you telegraph from here to the 
Philippines ?" 

General Corbin thought that if the order were to 
be repealed it could better be done from Washington. 
But the President said: "No, no; we will not wait. 
The mothers who gave the best they had to the 
country should not be breaking their hearts that 
the government may save twenty-five or fifty dollars. 
Save the money somewhere else." Forthwith, from 
the table at Sagamore Hill went the new ruling that 
the names of the privates as well as those of the 
officers falling in the Philippines, should be sent home 
by cable. 

An English guest of world-wide experience pro- 
nounced the table-talk at Oyster Bay as brilliant as 
any he ever had heard. The variety of the Presi- 
dent's topics, his grasp of subjects, his out-of-the-way 
t 273 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



knowledge, and his marvellous memory reminded him 
of the conversation of Gladstone. A British army 
officer, with a long experience in India, declared, 
after his visit, that the President knew more than he 
about the history and the administration of the 
Indian government. An ambassador, lunching at 
Oyster Bay, made some remark about a buffalo head 
on the wall. This led his host to express his regret 
that we in this country should have exterminated the 
American bison in a dozen years, where Europe was 
a thousand years in killing off the auroch. Then 
he talked of the migration of the fauna of South 
America across the isthmus and of the fauna of 
Asia across Behring Strait, with the resultant inter- 
mingling of the species in North America. 

"Where did you ever find time to get all that in- 
formation ?" the guest asked, in genuine amazement. 

"Oh," the President replied, "I have a store of 
such useless information, all gained in odd minutes. 
For instance, while in hot water over some practical 
question, I like nothing better than to study some 
such remote subject as the dimensions of the empire 
of Alexander the Great." 

The private, domestic side of Oyster Bay, however, 

274 



LIFE AT OYSTER BAY 



is by no means crowded out of the life of the Presi- 
dent when he is there. On the contrary he has the 
versatility to carry on his public duties without in- 
terfering with the pleasures of his vacation. He 
chops trees, pitches hay, rides and walks, plays tennis, 
and romps with his children in a spirit free from the 
cares of office. He and Mrs. Roosevelt find time to 
keep up the best relations with their neighbors. 
The President's wife joins the sewing circle of her 
church, and, on one occasion when the women were 
working for the crippled children in a Brooklyn in- 
stitution, she made half a dozen night-gowns for the 
little unfortunates. She visits the sick and the un- 
happy of the town, not with the condescension of a 
great lady, but as a sympathetic friend. 

The President, here as everywhere, is a keen 
observer of nature. He and his boys eagerly wel- 
come any of the field folk who venture to visit Saga- 
more Hill, always, of course, provided that they come 
with no evil design on the poultry. A mink was 
treated as a friend until some chicken feathers were 
found too near his lair. The entire place is a favorite 
resort for many kinds of birds. There are sharp- 
tailed finches in the marsh, there are wood-thrushes 

275 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



which nest around the house; Baltimore orioles 
hang their nests in an elm near the porch ; robins, 
cat-birds, valiant king-birds, song-sparrows, chippies, 
bright-colored thistle-finches, make their home near 
by; swallows build in the chimneys; humming- 
birds flit among the honeysuckles and trumpet- 
flowers; there are wrens in the shrubbery, and in 
the orchard there are woodpeckers, while thrushes 
and Maryland yellowthroats are in the hedges, 
brush sparrows and prairie-warblers in the cedars. 
Chickadees are everywhere and jays chatter in the 
tall timber. The cedar-birds prey upon the cherries 
with impunity, because, as the President says, they 
are "quiet and pretty and so well-bred." Moral 
suasion was used on a flicker who began to dig a hole 
in a corner of the house, but he would not desist, and 
his doom was reluctantly decreed. Most people 
do not like the screech-owl, but President Roosevelt 
is not among them. He contends, indeed, that it 
does not screech at all, and that he likes to hear its 
tremulous, quavering cry, as it sits on the elk antlers 
over the gable of Sagamore Hill. 



276 






CHAPTER XXVII 

THE PRESIDENT AND HIS CHILDREN 



Prouder to be the father of six than the head of a nation. — His 
tribute to the athletic accomplishments of his elder daughter, 
for he likes little girls to be tomboys. — Himself a good deal of 
a boy, he is happiest to be a comrade in the ranks with his sons. 
— They play and read, tramp and ride together. — Swarms of 
strange pets at Oyster Bay, ranging from a badger to a zebra. — 
Kangaroo-rats and flying-squirrels in the boys' pockets and 
blouses. — Big names for little guinea-pigs. — Archie's Icelandic 
pony rides in the White House elevator. — The President and 
his boys camping out. 

"What we have a right to expect of the American 
boy is that he shall turn out to be a good American 
man. Now the chances are that he won't be much 
of a man unless he is a good deal of a boy. He must 
not be a coward or a weakling, a bully, a shirk, or a 
prig. He must work hard and play hard. He must 
be clean-minded and clean-lived, and able to hold 
his own under all circumstances and against all 
comers. It is only on these conditions that he will 
grow into the kind of man of whom America can 
really be proud. In life, as in a football game, the 

277 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



principle to follow is to hit the line hard; don't foul 
and don't shirk, but hit the line hard." 

— Theodore Roosevelt. 



Boys admire President Roosevelt because he him- 
self "is a good deal of a boy." Some men have 
claimed that Mr. Roosevelt never has matured; but 
this is saying no more than that he has not stopped 
growing, that he is not yet imprisoned in the crust 
of age. To him the world is still young and unfin- 
ished. He has a boy's fresh faith that the things that 
ought to be done can be done. His eyes are on the 
future rather than on the past. 

Young America probably never drew so near to any 
other public man as to Theodore Roosevelt. All 
the boys in the land feel that there is a kindred spirit 
in the White House. Every one of them knows | 
"Teddy" and the "Teddy bear" and the "Teddy! 
hat." It is doubtful if the President ever was 
called "Teddy" when he was a boy. He used to be 1 
"Teedy" in the family circle and at Harvard he was I 
"Ted," while among the intimates of his manhood 
he is "Theodore." He is "Teddy, " however, toil 
millions of boys who delight in their comradeship 

278 






THE PRESIDENT AND HIS CHILDREN 

with the President which this nickname implies. It 
does not mean that they are lacking in respect for 
him; it simply means that they are not afraid of him, 
and that they feel they know him and he knows them. 

"Is that where Teddy works?" the little fellow 
eagerly inquires, as his father points out the executive 
building beside the White House. 

"Who is President of the United States ?" a Syra- 
cuse teacher asks. 

"Roosevelt," a little girl answers. 

"By what title is the President known?" 

"Teddy," is the prompt response. 

Young America is drawn to the President through 
his delight in his own children. He is prouder to 
be the father of a family of six than to be the head of 
the nation. This is the domestic roster: — 

Alice Lee (named for her mother, the first Mrs. 
Roosevelt), born in New York City, February 12, 
1884; married Nicholas Longworth of Cincinnati, 
at the White House, February 17, 1906. 

Theodore, Jr. (named for his father), born at 
Oyster Bay, September 13, 1887. 

Kermit (this is the middle name of his mother), 
born at Oyster Bay, October 10, 1889. 

279 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



Ethel Carow (named for her mother's family), 
born at Oyster Bay, August 13, 1891. 

Archibald Bulloch (named for a paternal ancestor, 
the first Governor of the State of Georgia), born in 
Washington, April 9, 1894. 

Quentin (named for a maternal ancestor) born in 
Washington, November 19, 1897. 

The chief ambition of Mr. and Mrs. Roosevelt has 
not been to rear a brilliant family, but to keep 
their children like other children, unspoiled by their 
father's distinction, and to bring them up simply and 
to fit them to be womanly women and manly men. 
They have all had the same nurse, but their mother 
trusts no one to tuck them in at night, and she herself 
attends to this duty even when there is a great recep- 
tion or state dinner to be given. 

The President wishes his daughters as well as his 
sons to be brave and hardy. "I must confess," he 
said, "that when girls are small I like them to be 
tomboys." Of his eldest child he once remarked: 
"Alice is a girl who does not stay in the house and 
sit in a rocking-chair. She can walk as far as I can. 
She can ride, drive, and shoot, although she doesn't 
care much for the shooting. I don't mind that; it 

280 



THE PRESIDENT AND HIS CHILDREN 

is not necessary for health, but outdoor exercise is, 
and she has plenty of that." 

Coming to womanhood while her father was Presi- 
dent, Alice was obliged to pay the penalty of his fame. 
Her every step was published to the world and her 
name was made a favorite subject of gossip and 
rumor. It was a trying ordeal for a young woman, 
but it must be granted by all that she passed through 
this trial with a careless indifference, worthy of her 
father's spirit of courage and independence. The 
German Emperor selected her to christen his yacht, 
when it was launched in an American shipyard, and 
she complied with the imperial request simply and 
modestly. After the launching she sent this mes- 
sage by cable : — 

" His Majesty, the Emperor, 

" Berlin, Germany : 

" The Meteor has been successfully launched. I congratulate 

you, and I thank you for your courtesy to me, and I send my best 

wishes. 

"Alice Lee Roosevelt." 

Some guardians of royal etiquette in Europe seemed 
to be a little shocked by the lack of formality, by the 
directness of that greeting from an American girl 

281 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



to an august sovereign. Doubtless the Kaiser liked 
this girlish frankness. He knows we have no court 
manners over here. Miss Roosevelt again became 
involved in court etiquette when she planned to 
attend the coronation of King Edward in London. 
The American ambassador had invited her to join 
him on that occasion and she was as ready as any 
other girl to see so grand a pageant. When, how- 
ever, a debate arose as to whether the daughter 
of the President should be received as a princess, 
she and her father lost their patience, and the journey 
was abandoned in disgust. 

Afterward, on a trip to the Philippine Islands with 
an official party, she was received without ostentation, 
but with a pleasing courtesy, at the courts of China 
and Japan. Rumor had busily linked her name 
with nearly every titled young diplomat in Wash- 
ington, when she announced her engagement to an 
untitled American citizen, and in due time enrolled 
herself among the "White House brides." 

With his four sons President Roosevelt is more 
like an elder brother than a father. He has no 
paternal airs for them. When he went out to the 
church school which Ethel attends near Washington, 

282 



THE PRESIDENT AND HIS CHILDREN 

he made a speech, in which he said, "Life in the 
family circle is usually shaped predominantly for 
good or evil by the mother, even more than by the 
father," and accordingly the President rather takes 
his place in the ranks as an equal comrade of his 
sons. They play and read, tramp and ride together. 
There are reports of furious pillow fights between 
them even in the White House. Ignoring his 
rightful dignity, they have been known to oblige 
him to get down on all fours and be a bear — a real, 
live "Teddy bear," with a table or a bush for his 
den. 

The President is most likely to say "we " when 
speaking of his boys, and when he tells of the things 
he and they can do together, he is sometimes guilty 
of a boastful note. "When it comes to boxing or 
riding," he has been heard to say, "I think all of 
us can hold our own." He tries his best to keep up 
with them in all their amusements. Tales of the 
sea appeal to him as strongly as to them, and if he 
hears them praise a story they are reading, he is 
likely to take their advice and read it. 

He is very fond of fairy tales. His mother's 
sister, Mrs. Gracie, told him in his childhood many 

283 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



of the Uncle Remus stories, long before Joel Chandler 
Harris put them into literature. The minister from 
Holland found to his surprise and pleasure that the 
President knew the Dutch kinder-tales as well as 
he, and the ambassador from Italy was amazed when 
he recalled the story of a famous hero of Italian 
children, which the Ambassador himself had almost 
forgotten. When his children began to talk of 
Irish fairies, their father felt that his education had 
been neglected, for he did not know them. He 
was not too old to learn, however, and he made him- 
self acquainted with the leprechaun and the rest 
of the fairy folk of the Emerald Isle, so that his 
youngsters should not be ahead of him. 

As Santa Claus he used to be a high favorite, in 
the old Oyster Bay days, at least. Once when he 
had distributed the Christmas gifts among his own 
and the neighbors' children, he made a little speech 
in which he said to them: "I want you all as you 
grow up to have a good time. I do not think enough 
of a sour-faced child to spank him. And while you 
are having a good time, work, for you will have a 
good time while you work, if you work the right way. 
If the time ever comes for you to fight, fight as you 

284 



THE PRESIDENT AND HIS CHILDREN 

have worked, for it will be your duty. A coward, 
you know, is several degrees meaner than a liar. 
Be manly and gentle to those weaker than your- 
selves. Hold your own and at the same time do 
your duty to the weak, and you will come pretty near 
being noble men and women." 

The President has taught his boys to shoot and 
box, to swim and row and ride. He has tried to 
teach them not to be afraid of anything. Their 
country place at Oyster Bay swarms with all kinds 
of strange pets. A little girl out in Kansas threw 
a live badger on the platform of the President's 
car, and he brought the queer thing home for his 
children. They had a lot of fun with him in spite 
of his habit of biting their bare legs. First and last 
they have had such playfellows as a lion, a hyena, 
a wild-cat, a coyote, two big parrots, five bears, an 
eagle, a barn owl, several snakes and lizards, a 
zebra which the Emperor of Abyssinia sent them, 
kangaroo-rats and flying squirrels, rabbits, and 
guinea-pigs. 

Many of these animals and reptiles were thrust 
upon the family as gifts, and after a time were added 
to the public zoological collection in New York. 

285 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



The kangaroo-rats and flying squirrels slept in the 
pockets and blouses of the children, whence they 
sometimes made unexpected appearances at the 
breakfast and dinner table or in school. 

There are dogs without number, for dogs like the 
President. They bound out to welcome him, and 
he calls each by name and gives him a fond pat. 
Once when he was in a theatre box in Washington 
a dog strayed out on the stage, and, stretching him- 
self, yawned loud and long. There was a roar of 
laughter from the audience, in which Mr. Roosevelt's 
voice was by no means lost. At any rate, the dog 
heard it, and turned to look at him. In another 
second he leaped from the stage into the box and 
settled himself in the President's lap. By this time 
the play and players were forgotten by the people 
as they watched the Presidential box, and the per- 
formance could not go on until the President had 
leaned over and set his four-footed friend upon the 
stage. 

Mr. Roosevelt had a like experience with a dog 
while on a bear hunt in Colorado. A little black 
and tan in the hunting pack picked him as his 
favorite. Skip would run forty miles a day on the 

286 



THE PRESIDENT AND HIS CHILDREN 

chase, but liked best a front seat on the President's 
horse. At night he would sleep on the foot of his bed, 
and growl defiance at anybody and anything that 
came near. "I grew attached to the friendly, bright 
little fellow," the President has confessed, "and at 
the end of the hunt I took him home as a playmate 
for the children." 

Some of Skip's new companions at Oyster Bay 
bore names far more imposing than his. There was 
a black bear, with an uncertain temper, whom the 
children had named Jonathan Edwards in honor 
of the famous divine, who was an ancestor of their 
mother. There were guinea-pigs who bore names 
in compliment to Bishop Doane of Albany, Father 
O'Grady, a neighboring priest, Dr. Johnson, Fight- 
ing Bob Evans, and Admiral Dewey. A distinguished 
man, who was calling on the President, did not under- 
stand this custom, and therefore was bewildered to 
hear one of the children rush in and breathlessly 
report, "Oh, oh, Father O'Grady has had some 
children !" 

Perhaps the most honored representative of the 
animal kingdom at Oyster Bay is Algonquin, a little 
calico pony from far-away Iceland, which Secretary 

287 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



Hitchcock gave to Archie. Skip, as well as Archie, 
delights to ride Algonquin. Nothing is too good for 
this Icelander, and, when a naval officer came to call 
in full-dress uniform, Archie was so impressed that 
he at once ran to get Algonquin that he too might 
enjoy the spectacle. The pageant was lost on him, 
however, and he would look at nothing except the nice 
green grass in the lawn, which he nibbled greedily. 

But once when Archie was sick in the White 
House, Algonquin made up for all past neglect. 
The stable boys were sure that if the invalid could 
have a visit from the pony it would do him more good 
than medicine. They conspired together, secretly 
smuggled him into the basement and into the ele- 
vator, and thus carried him up to the sick-room, 
to the unbounded joy of the patient. 

A red-letter day in the boy life at Oyster Bay is 
when the President goes picnicking. The Roosevelt 
boys and their cousins, who live near by, plan it all, 
and with the President they row off to some quiet 
cove, away from telephones and Secret Service men. 
There they catch their fish and build a fire. The 
President turns cook before an admiring circle of 
youths, who watch him with watering mouths while 

288 



THE PRESIDENT AND HIS CHILDREN 

he fries the fish or strips of beefsteak and thin slices 
of potatoes. "You ought to taste my father's 
steak," Archie boasts all the rest of the year. "He 
tumbles it all in together, potatoes, onions, and steak. 
I tell you it's fine." After supper the President tells 
them stories of big game out West, of mountain 
lions and grizzly bears, while the little fellows watch 
the shadows around them. One night they heard 
a fox barking in the woods, which thrilled them 
through and through, and they discussed the chance 
of seeing him in the morning. And sure enough 
they saw him running along the shore while they 
and the President were in for their early swim. 

The eternal boy in the President can always hear 
the call of his boys. On a certain occasion several 
of the boys came into the library while he was talk- 
ing with a man, and one of the cousins spoke up : 
"Uncle, it's after four." "So it is," the President 
replied, as he looked at the clock. "Why didn't 
you call me sooner ? One of you get my rifle. I 
must ask you to excuse me," he said, as he turned to 
his caller. "We'll finish this talk later. I promised 
the boys I would go shooting with them at four 
o'clock, and I never keep them waiting. It's hard 
u 289 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



for a boy to wait." In order to give his boys a 
chance for rifle practice he has provided a two- 
hundred-yard range at Oyster Bay. 

At another time Quentin sought out his father in 
the gun room, where he had taken refuge for the 
purpose of finishing some writing. A negro gardener 
had seen a coon in the hickory grove, and the Presi- 
dent must come with his rifle "right away." So ofF 
they went, Quentin clasping the butt of the rifle, 
until they came to the impudent invader in a big 
hollow chestnut tree. The President has the utmost 
tolerance for all kinds of wild guests, but this one 
was too near the chicken coop. A short while before, 
a possum had been spared in mistaken kindness 
and had done much harm to the poultry. The coon 
was doomed, and when the President and his son 
returned to the house, each carried a hind leg of the 
rascal. 

For the boys the glory of the White House is a poor 
exchange for the free life at Oyster Bay. When the 
President told one of them, early in their experience 
at the mansion, not to walk through the flower beds 
because the gardener objected, the lad indignantly 
exclaimed, " I don't see what good it does you to be 

290 




o 
X 



THE PRESIDENT AND HIS CHILDREN 

President; there are so many things we can't do 
here." No doubt he had learned with disappoint- 
ment that it was an idle dream which the old rhyme 
expressed : — 

" If I were President of these United States, 
I'd eat molasses candy and swing on the White House gates." 

Still no one feels much like pitying Quentin, when 
he is seen romping about the south portico in blue 
overalls, just like any other boy. He can play police, 
too, with the real police who guard the grounds. 
He and Archie delight in lining up with the blue- 
coated squad at roll-call and saluting the sergeant 
gravely. When one of the policemen was removed 
for some cause, Archie became his champion. "You 
meet me when I come out of school to-morrow," 
he said to the man, "and we'll go see Senator Lodge 
about this." He knew enough of practical politics 
to know that it was well to have an influential senator 
on his side. 

The boys go to the public schools, even if they are 
the President's sons. When one of them was asked 
how he got along with the "common boys" in school, 
he is said to have replied : " My father says there are 

291 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



only tall boys and short boys, and bad boys and good 
boys, and that's all the kinds of boys there are." 

When they are old enough, they go to Harvard, 
their father's college, and when Theodore, Jr., joined 
the most sought-for club, the President left the White 
House and made a special trip to Cambridge, in order 
to see him admitted. He himself had belonged to 
the Porcellian, and he took as much pride in seeing 
his son enter its sacred precincts as when he gained 
the coveted privilege twenty-five years before. 



292 



CHAPTER XXVIII 

AS A SPORTSMAN 



The Roosevelt doctrine as to sports. — Physical exercise a duty 
as well as a pastime. — The "square deal" in athletics. — The 
President on football and prize fighting. — His ideals as a 
hunter. — How he killed his first deer, and his remorse. — The 
chase, and not the slaughter, is the true object. — To live in the 
wilderness, to learn to endure and to gain self-reliance the 
greatest rewards. — J°y s °f hunting in the Yellowstone without 
a rifle. — Chasing the cougar, the wolf, and the bear. — A 
battle with a grizzly. 

" Oh, our manhood's prime vigor. No spirit feels waste, 
Not a muscle is stopped in its playing, nor sinew embraced. 
Oh, the wild joys of living — the leaping from rock up to rock, 
The strong rending of boughs from the fir tree, the cool silver 

shock 
Of a plunge in a pool's living water, the hunt of a bear — 
How good is man's life, the mere living ..." 

— A quotation from Robert Browning, in one of the 
Roosevelt hunting books. 

Athletic sports are among the many activities 
of his time which President Roosevelt represents. 
It cannot be said that they ever before had a repre- 
sentative in the White House. Most of his prede- 
cessors grew up in simple communities where the 
mere task of getting a living was a sufficient muscular 

2 93 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



exercise. Mr. Roosevelt stands for the new con- 
ditions which have arisen in this country since he 
was born, and under which a large part of the popu- 
lation live in big cities, where they are employed 
in occupations that afford little or no opportunity 
for physical development. 

From those conditions athletic sports have sprung 
as a necessity of life. They were unknown fifty 
years ago, and they have had most of their growth 
in the past twenty-five years. When Mr. Roosevelt 
went to college he found the intercollegiate games 
in their infancy. 

To him sport is more than sport; it is a duty. 
"Always in our modern life, the life of a highly com- 
plex industrialism," he has said, "there is a tendency 
to softening of the fibre," and therefore "it is es- 
pecially necessary to provide hard and rough play. 
Of course if such play is made a serious business, 
the result is very bad." Enthusiastic as he is in his 
love of all forms of athletics, he draws the line very 
sharply. "Here is Moody," he said to some Harvard 
men once, and referring to his Attorney-General, 
who is now an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court 
of the United States: "Moody was a great athlete 

294 



AS A SPORTSMAN 



at Harvard and played on the nine. But if he had 
been satisfied with that, do you suppose he would now 
be Attorney-General of the United States ? No, 
indeed; nothing disgusts me more than to see the 
way many college athletes drop out of sight after 
leaving college." 

Mr. Roosevelt is always a stanch defender of 
college athletics as a means of saving us from be- 
coming a nation of "mollycoddles," but the evils 
of intercollegiate contests have no more earnest foe 
than he. In the midst of his Presidential duties, 
he has taken time to send for the coaches of some 
of the big university football teams and to confer 

Iwith them for the improvement of the game. He 
carries the spirit of the "square deal" into all fields 
of sports. Although himself a devotee of boxing, 
he urged, as Governor, the repeal of the law under 
which prize-fights were held in New York. "Box- 
ing," he said in his message;, "is a fine sport," but 
"when any sport is carried on primarily for money — 
that is, as a business — it is in danger of losing 
much that is valuable, and of acquiring some ex- 
ceedingly undesirable characteristics. In the case 
of prize-fighting, not only do all the objections which 

295 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



apply to the abuse of other professional sports apply 
in aggravated form, but, in addition, the exhibition 
has a very demoralizing and brutalizing effect." 

President Roosevelt's favorite pastime is hunting. 
He has devoured the literature of the chase in all 
lands and in all ages, and he has hunted nearly all 
the wild things of the United States, furred and 
feathered alike. No one, however, could have more 
contempt than he for any shooting that involves 
what he regards as a wanton destruction of life. 
He has expressed his impatience with "vegetarians 
of the flabby Hindoo type"; but he has oftener 
and even more hotly expressed his utter detestation 
of killing for the sake of killing, and for everything 
that he looks upon as unsportsmanlike. 

Thus he has publicly recorded his remorse for get- 
ting his first deer, when a boy of seventeen, by 
"jacking" in the Adirondacks, that is to say, by 
luring the prey at night by the light of a fire in the 
stern of a boat. "It was my first deer," he has 
said, "and I was very glad to get it; but, although 
only a boy, I had sense enough to realize that it was 
not an experience worth repeating." Deer hunting 
on snow-shoes, where the deer cannot give a good 

296 




From Stereograph, Copyright bj Under* 1 .v linlm 1. New Fork 

President Roosevelt in the Rockies 



AS A SPORTSMAN 



chase, he has denounced as "simple butchery." 
In his Wild West days he disliked to shoot antelope 
in winter, because "I felt the animals were then 
having a sufficiently hard struggle for existence 
anyhow." 

It is his opinion that "no sportsman, if he has a 
healthy mind, will long take pleasure in any method 
of hunting, in which somebody else shows the skill 
and does the work, so that his share is only nominal. 
The minute sport is carried on on those terms it be- 
comes a sham, and a sham is always detrimental 
to all who take part in it." 

For shooting birds as they are let out of a trap he 
has never cared, and he is not in sympathy with the 
English style of hunting, which often involves the 
wholesale slaughter of game as it is driven directly 
before the guns by a swarm of hired attendants. 
The shooting, without the chase, would not appeal 
to him. "I feel that the chase of any animal," he 
has said, "has in it two chief elements of attraction. 
The first is the chance given to be in the wilderness. 
The second is the demand made by the particular 
kind of chase upon the qualities of manliness and 
hardihood." 

297 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



Of a certain familiar variety of sportsmanship he 
has expressed himself in these terms: "It ought to 
be unnecessary to point out that the wilderness is not 
a place for those who are dependent upon luxuries, 
and above all for those who make a camping trip 
an excuse for debauchery. Neither the man who 
wants a French cook and champagne on a hunting 
trip, nor his equally objectionable, though less 
wealthy brother, who is chiefly concerned with filling 
and emptying a large whiskey jug, has any place 
whatever in the real life of the wilderness." 

Rightly to understand the outdoor Roosevelt, to 
see him at play, and to appreciate the large influence 
which these things have had in the making of the 
man, physically and mentally, it must be known that 
his pastimes never have been mere time-killers. He 
has had no time to kill. He has never been an 
idler. Always a sport makes its highest appeal to him 
as a means to an end. He feels that to neglect his 
body would be like neglecting his morals or his 
mind. He seeks to keep his muscles hard, his nerves 
steady, his will strong. 

"It is an excellent thing," so runs his creed, "for 
any man to be a good horseman and a good marks- 

298 



AS A SPORTSMAN 



man, to be bold and hardy, and wonted to feats of 
strength, and to endure, to be able to live in the open, 
and to feel a self-reliant readiness in any crisis." 

: To him the wilderness is a part of the school of life. 
"The qualities that make a good soldier," he once 
wrote, "are in big part the qualities that make a 

: good hunter; most important of all is the ability to 
shift for one's self, the mixture of hardihood and re- 
sourcefulness, which enables a man to tramp all day 
in the right direction, and, when night comes, to make 
the best of whatever opportunities for shelter and 
warmth may be at hand." This usually cannot be 
done by a "man who lives a rather over-civilized, an 
over-luxurious life — especially in the great cities." 
For days at a time, when he was a young ranch- 
man, he would roam the wilds alone with his pony, 
and his pocket editions of the classics, and the simplest 
and scantiest provisions. He has slept on the 

t prairie in his buffalo bag when the thermometer 
had fallen to sixty-five degrees below zero. One 
night when he was out, a blizzard overtook him, and 
obliged him to seek shelter. Coming upon a cowboy, 
who was also fleeing from the storm, the two found 
a deserted hut, in which they took refuge. As they 

299 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



sat about the fire they had built, Mr. Roosevelt 
read "Hamlet" to his companion, who was an 
uncultivated son of the plains, but who was deeply 
interested in the tale. At the end of the reading 
he gave it as his enthusiastic opinion that "old 
Shakespeare savveyed human nature some." Mr. 
Roosevelt learned to take life everywhere as he 
found it. He can wash his clothes, and cook his 
meals, and in his Wild West days he went into 
frontier society. He attended the balls, and danced 
with the women, and opened one cowboy ball with 
the wife of a small stockman, dancing the lancers 
with her, opposite her husband, who not long before 
had killed a notorious bad man in self-defence. 

There is at least one more very important point in 
the Roosevelt doctrine on the subject of hunting. 
All hunters should be nature lovers. Indeed, they 
should be naturalists, like himself, or they should 
at least know how to record what they see. "If 
possible," so reads this doctrine for the hunter, "he 
should be an adept with the camera; and hunting 
with the camera will tax his skill far more than i 
hunting with the rifle, while the results in the long 
run give much greater satisfaction." He goes 



AS A SPORTSMAN 



further, and makes this confession: "As we grow 
older, I think most of us become less keen about 
that part of the hunt which consists in the killing. 
I know that as far as I am concerned I have long 
gone past the stage when the chief end of a hunting 
trip is the bag. One or two bucks, or enough grouse 
and trout to keep the camp supplied, will furnish 
all the sport necessary to give zest and point to a trip 
in the wilderness." 

One of the most enjoyable hunts which he has had 
while President was without a rifle. He and John 
Burroughs, the venerable nature writer, "Oom 
John," as the President affectionately calls him, went 
to the Yellowstone Park. The national government 
owns the park, and no one, not even the President 
of the United States, is allowed to carry firearms 
within its limits. This general disarmament, this 
peace between the various branches of the animal 
kingdom, has become known to the birds and beasts, 
and they swarm the great place in security. The 
President saw one hundred antelope grazing in the 
streets of a village. Deer as tame as cows came in 
droves to feed on the parade ground of the army 
post, in spite of the momentary shock they received 

301 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



at gun-fire morning and evening. As many as 
three thousand head of elk were in sight at once. 
Grizzly bears, buffaloes, coyotes, and mountain lions, 
and all the birds of the northern wilderness, greeted 
the President, with no fear of the "big stick." One 
morning he rushed out of his tent, when called, to 
watch a band of mountain sheep, away up by the 
snow-line, come calmly down an almost perpendicular 
precipice, which it did not seem possible for them to 
tread. 

He delighted to show Mr. Burroughs the wild 
things of the Rockies, which he has known from early 
manhood, but which the elder man had never seen. 
He showed him the Sprague's lark, or the Missouri 
skylark, singing as it took its zenith early in the 
morning. They hearkened to the distant call of the 
sand-hill crane, and he tried to convince his guest 
that there was beauty in the far-off call of the bull 
elk, which, near at hand, is only a bellow, but which, 
the President declared, when heard across a valley, 
brought pleasure to his ear. They agreed at the 
outset in admiring the beauty of the song of the 
hermit thrush. 

The President's headquarters were fourteen miles 

302 



AS A SPORTSMAN 



from his secretary, who at that distance stood guard 
against the world and the cares of power, while the 
two nature lovers might say with the banished duke 
in the forest of Arden : — 

"And this our life, exempt from public haunt, 
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, 
Sermons in stones, and good in everything." 

After leaving the Yellowstone, the President 
visited that other noble park, the Yosemite, and 
there he slept out in a snow-storm, with not even a 
tent above him. On his return he stopped in 
Wyoming and took a seventy-five-mile ride on horse- 
back. He was eight hours in the saddle, and the 
people at Cheyenne said he arrived there looking 
fresh enough to go on for another eight hours. 

In the interval of two months between his Govern- 
orship and his Vice-Presidency, Mr. Roosevelt went 
cougar hunting in Colorado for four weeks. It was 
in the very depth of winter, and all the world was 
buried under ice and snow. He, however, was com- 
fortable in his buckskin shirt and hunting jacket 
lined with sheepskin, and his cap drawn down over 
his ears. He was forty miles from the railroad, and 

303 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



all around in the gloomy gorges or upon the cliffs 
were elk, blacktail deer, cougar, and mountain sheep. 
His "veins thrilled and beat with buoyant life." 
To him, even the baying of the wolves at night was 
"rather attractive." They would come down close 
to the ranch, where he was staying, and howl by the 
hour, and he would go out in the darkness, with the 
thermometer standing at twenty below, and for half 
an hour at a time listen, entranced, to the wild music 
of the beasts. 

One night he entered on a chase by moonlight. He 
could not see the sights of his rifle. When the steeps 
were too much for the footing of his horse, he con- 
tinued the pursuit unmounted, until he had followed 
the cougar along a cliff fully a hundred feet high. 
Finally he made his conquest only by hanging 
over the precipice while a guide held him by the 
legs. 

The President had a month of hunting in the 
spring of 1905. He first went to Oklahoma, where 
he joined in wolf coursing over the rolling prairies. It 
was in the land of prairie-dog villages, where that 
queer little brute carries on cooperative house- 
keeping with rattlesnakes and burrowing owls. 

304 




Prom stereograph, Copyright by Underwood & Vnderwood, New York 

President Roosevelt on a Bear Hunt 



AS A SPORTSMAN 



The President and his companions would gallop 
across the countless holes of one of those strange 
communities, but their sure-footed ponies seldom 
stumbled. At noon the party would gather about 
the "chuck wagon," the lunch-cart of the plains, 
which followed them, and the President, in describ- 
ing the pleasures of the vacation, exclaimed, "Where 
does a man take more frank enjoyment in his dinner 
than at the tail end of a chuck wagon !" 

As they rode back to civilization and the railroad 
on the last day of the hunt, some one proposed that 
they stir up the town which they were approaching, 
by making a regular cowboy rush upon it. So, 
when they were about a mile outside, the President 
and all of them broke into a lope, and by the time 
the main street was reached their horses were on a 
wild run. Thus they tore through the place and 
bore down upon the railroad station like a whirl- 
wind. 

In the same spring the President enjoyed a bear 
hunt in Colorado. There he revelled in the freedom 
of tent life, amid the leafless aspens and great spruces, 
beside the rushing, ice-rimmed brook. Early to 
breakfast was the rule, and then off for the hunt, 
x 3°5 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



which sometimes lasted ten and twelve hours without 
a mouthful of food. The horses struggled through 
the snow up to their saddle girths. Ranchmen 
came from miles around to "see the President kill 
a bear." The pack of hounds, with their marked 
individualities, interested him not a little. But 
even the most intelligent among them would per- 
sist in chasing porcupines, and then "we had to> 
spend many minutes in removing the quills from 
their mouths and eyes." A white bull terrier 
would come in "looking like a glorified pin-cushion." 

All the life of the wilds appealed to the spirit of 
the naturalist in the President, and a catalogue of] 
the creatures that did not escape his observation 
would include tiny four-striped chipmunks, white- 
footed mice, a bushy-tailed pack rat, snowshoe- 
rabbits, woodchucks, rock squirrels, eagles, ravens, 
sand-hill cranes, blue jays, magpies, nutcrackers, 
whiskey-jacks, blue crows, hawks, flickers, robins, 
bluebirds, chickadees, kinglets, towhees, willow 
thrushes, meadow-larks, finches, blackbirds, and 
owls. One night as he sat at the head of the supper 
table he said, "I heard a Bullock's oriole to-day." 

"You must have been mistaken, Mr. President," 

306 



AS A SPORTSMAN 



one of his companions, with a long experience in 
that country, said; "they don't come for two weeks 
yet. 

The President felt sure he was right, but bided 
his time till he could gain some evidence in his 
support. "Look! Look!" he cried in triumph 
the next day, as he pointed to the bird perched on 
a near-by shrub. Nothing in the course of his trip 
pleased him more than this vindication. 

On Sunday the President and his party rode 
several miles to a little blue schoolhouse, whither 
a minister came some twenty miles or more to min- 
ister to the ranchmen and their families. The 
presence of so distinguished a communicant drew 
a congregation too large for the schoolroom, and the 
services, therefore, were held outdoors. 

Only so much has been told in this chapter as 
would suffice to show the character of President 
Roosevelt's sportsmanship. From his boyhood wan- 
derings in the groves of Long Island and in the 
woods of Maine to his latest hunting expedition in 
the Rocky Mountains, his steady purpose has been 
to build up his body and to train his mind, to gain 
the self-reliance of the primitive man. How well 

3°7 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



and how early he succeeded in this ambition was 
shown by an experience of many years ago. He 
was hunting with an old mountain guide in a strange 
and remote part of Idaho. The guide was so 
rheumatic and crabbed that he was a most trying 
companion. Finally, when he got to drinking to 
excess, the young man would put up with him no 
longer. 

He took his horse, his sleeping-bag, a frying-pan, 
some salt, flour, and baking-powder, a chunk of 
salt pork, his washing-kit, a hatchet and his ward- 
robe, which consisted of a few pairs of socks and 
some handkerchiefs, and boldly struck out for him- 
self. He had now only his compass for a guide 
through a region unknown to him. There was 
virtually no trail. When night came he 
would throw down his sleeping-bag on a mat of 
pine needles beside a crystal brook, drag up a few 
dry logs, and then go off with his rifle to get a bird 
for his supper. Once, while on this long and lonely 
journey homeward, he encountered in the fading 
light of day a big grizzly bear. In the combat that 
followed, the savage beast charged straight at him, 

roaring furiously, as it crashed and bounded through 

308 



AS A SPORTSMAN 



the bushes, its mighty paw barely missing him. The 
intrepid rifleman won the battle, arid the next morn- 
ing, after his regular plunge in the icy waters of a 
mountain torrent, he laboriously removed the beau- 
tiful coat of his fallen foe, and to this day it is a 
cherished trophy at Oyster Bay. 



3°9 



CHAPTER XXIX 

A WORLD FIGURE 



Tributes to Roosevelt, the peacemaker, from the princes and 
peoples of the world. — The press of Europe filled with praise 
of the American President as the foremost man of the day. — 
Foreign nations send their best diplomats to Washington. — 
The Roosevelt way of dispelling the one war cloud of his ad- 
ministration. — March 14, 1907, novel method of making peace 
between Japan and California. — His efForts to pacify Cuba. — 
The olive branch as well as the big stick for South America. — 
Securing the neutrality of China. — Settling the Alaskan 
boundary dispute. — Starting the movement for the second 
conference of the nations at The Hague. — The Nobel peace 
prize of 1906 for President Roosevelt and his characteristic use 
of the money. 

We are too near the man and his work to pro- 
nounce a clear judgment on Theodore Roosevelt. 
In some eyes his virtues may be magnified, in 
others his faults. Distance is required to give the 
true proportions. I have tried to represent only 
the man of action here, the man as the vast 
majority of his countrymen see him; to tell how 
and not why he " does things." In this closing 
chapter I shall merely offer some foreign views of 

310 



A WORLD FIGURE 



him, showing how he looks in the longer perspec- 
tive of various observers across the sea. 

No other President ever had such world-wide 
celebrity among his contemporaries as President 
Roosevelt commanded at the time of the Russo- 
Japanese peace. He was everywhere acclaimed the 
foremost figure of his day. All mankind acknowl- 
edged its indebtedness to him. The head of nearly 
every civilized state hastened to congratulate him 
by cable. 

"Accept my congratulations and warmest thanks," 
the Czar said in his message, "for having brought 
the peace negotiations to a successful conclusion, 
owing to your personal, energetic efforts. My 
country will gratefully recognize the great part you 
have played in the Portsmouth peace conference." 
The Mikado assured the President that "to your 
disinterested and unremitting efforts in the interests 
of peace and humanity I attach the high value 
which is their due." From King Edward came 
this cordial message: "Let me be one of the first to 
congratulate you on the successful issue of the peace 
: conference, to which you have so greatly contributed." 
Emperor William wired: "I am overjoyed and 

3« 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



express most sincere congratulations at the great 
success due to your untiring efforts. The whole 
of mankind must unite, and will do so, in thanking 
you for the great boon you have given it." President 
Loubet of France sent the assurance that "your 
Excellency has just rendered to humanity an eminent 
service." The press of Europe agreed in declaring 
that no other man could have brought about the 
happy result. 

The achievement which the treaty of Portsmouth 
represented was not needed, however, to introduce 
President Roosevelt to the favorable attention of 
Europe. Although an intense American, he seemed 
to the European mind much like their own statesmen. 
A man of family and wealth, the graduate of a 
famous university, a writer and a sportsman, he 
appealed to the old world imagination. "Take 
Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Rhodes, Lord Charles Beres- 
ford, and John Burns," said the English Review of 
Reviews, "boil them down until you get the residuum 
essence into an American Dutchman, and you have 
something like the new President of the United 
States." 

The President's portrait soon became as familiar: 

312 



A WORLD FIGURE 



on the other side of the ocean as that of any reigning 
monarch, and the caricaturists spread among all the 
nations the fame of those teeth which once struck ter- 
ror to the New York police. Meanwhile some of his 
books were translated into foreign languages, and 
the people of Europe thus came at last to study an 
American whose ideals are above the almighty dollar. 

An English writer after a visit to several capitals 
recorded that, where one man in Berlin talked of 
anything else, ten chose to talk of Roosevelt. At 
Rome his host, a distinguished member of the Cham- 
ber of Deputies, and former cabinet minister, refused 
to talk of any one but Roosevelt. Another English 
writer said: "No American President of my time 
has succeeded in so strongly impressing the imagina- 
tion of Europe. He belongs by birth, education, 
and tastes to the type that Englishmen like most to 
represent them. Mr. Roosevelt does precisely the 
things Englishmen would like their leaders to do. 
Every bear he has shot would be worth five hun- 
dred votes to him in England." 

From the Deutsche Tages Zeitung of Berlin, printed 
in the shadow of Emperor William himself, came 
this high estimate: "The American President is 

313 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



by far the most interesting personage in all the 
world of the present day." The Corriere della Sera 
of Milan said: "A memory of Graeco-Roman times 
clings to this singular man." In Madrid, the Epoca 
remarked of this one-time foe in arms: "You can put 
your finger on Theodore Roosevelt every time." 
To the Petit Parisien he was "one of the most 
remarkable men of the age." The great thunderer 
of British journalism, the London Times, observed 
in 1904 : "Since he has been President not a rash 
nor provocative word has fallen from his lips." As 
early as 1902 the London Spectator was pronounc- 
ing judgment in these terms: "At this moment 
President Roosevelt is probably the most interesting 
political figure in the world." 

Distinguished European visitors to America have 
looked upon the White House, with Mr. Roosevelt 
in it, as one of the chief points of interest. Mr. 
John Morley, the British statesman and man of 
letters, on his return to London reported: "I saw 
two tremendous forces of nature while I was gone. 
One was Niagara Falls, and the other the President 
of the United States, and I am not sure which is the 
more wonderful." 

314 




President Roosevelt To-day 



A WORLD FIGURE 






One of the first to appreciate the influence which 
President Roosevelt was to exert, was the German 
Emperor, to whom he is so often likened. William 
contrived to despatch his brother, Prince Henry, 
on a special embassy to this country, in an early 
stage of the new administration, and paid the 
President's daughter the compliment of asking her 
to christen a yacht which he had ordered to be built 
in the United States. The Emperor has followed 
up these attentions with some added proof of his 
interest on every occasion. 

In emulation of Prince Henry's visit, the French 
sent a distinguished embassy a few months later. All 
the leading governments suddenly dropped their old 
habits of neglect toward Washington, and have stud- 
ied to select for their ambassadors at that post the 
strongest available men. 

Washington, however, has been no storm centre of 
diplomacy under President Roosevelt. Not a cloud 
cast its shadow on the foreign relations of the 
United States for five years after he came into 
power. Then an anti-Japanese crusade in Califor- 
nia took the form of excluding a few Japanese 
pupils from the white schools of San Francisco. 

3i5 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



The pride of Japan was sorely touched, and the 
government at Tokio insisted to the government at 
Washington that this insulting discrimination should 
cease. It is not in the power of the government of 
the United States, however, to interfere with the 
schools of any state, and there seemed to be no way 
to appease the rising wrath of Japan. The situa- 
tion was recognized as a grave one by the diplomats 
of the world, and rumors of war were heard. 

The President simply ignored the difficulties that 
confronted him, and, with a clear eye, sought away 
out of the trouble. He knew that the Californians 
did not really care if a handful of Japanese pupils 
attended school with the white children, and that the 
important thing to them was to have the Japanese 
laborers stopped from coming into their state by 
the thousands. Moreover, he knew that Japan 
needed all the labor she could get for the develop- 
ment of her interests in the Orient, and would rather 
not have her working people come to the United 
States. 

Acting upon these two facts of the situation, and 
disregarding all the loose talk surrounding them, 
the President arranged with the Mikado's govern- 

316 



A WORLD FIGURE 



ment for checking the immigration, provided those 
few dozen little Japs in San Francisco were per- 
mitted to return to the white schools. Then he sent 
for the mayor and school committee of that city. 
It was an unheard-of thing for the President of the 
United States to deal directly with mere municipal 
officials, and many prophets predicted that he 
would get only a snubbing from them. They were 
not under his authority, and officially were as inde- 
pendent of him as they were of the Mikado. 

In due time, however, they arrived, and the Presi- 
dent held long conferences with them at the White 
House. Little by little the outlook cleared. The 
mayor was flooded with telegrams to stand firm. 
But he had seen a new light. He had found the 
President in sympathy with the people of California 
in their dread of a great influx of Orientals, and 
the mayor knew that the case should be left in 
Mr. Roosevelt's care. He and his committee agreed 
to withdraw the rule against the Japanese pupils. 
There was more or less loud talk of " surrender," 
but the people of the coast generally were willing to 
leave their interests with the President. 

This disposition was strikingly shown a few days 

317 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



later, when the President made bold to address a 
telegram to the Governor of California, asking him 
to secure the suspension of some proposed legislation 
in hostility to the Japanese. It was an unprece- 
dented interference by a President with the affairs 
of a state. Nevertheless, when President Roosevelt's 
frank and direct appeal was read to the Legislature, 
one of the leaders on the floor rose and expressed 
the general confidence in the President when he 
said: "We can trust our interests in the hands of 
President Roosevelt." He thereupon moved that 
no action whatever be taken on the Japanese ques- 
tion, and accordingly the entire subject was promptly 
dropped without a word of protest. The incident 
marked a new departure in our country toward a 
friendly cooperation between state and nation. The 
President's unexpected success in this instance with 
both Japan and California, moreover, can be cred- 
ited only to the remarkable confidence in his fairness 
which he has established at home and abroad. 

Cuba is another field where President Roosevelt's 
pacific policies have been applied. When he had 
been President six months he set the Cuban Republic 
upon its feet and kept, before a sceptical world, the 

318 



A WORLD FIGUR1-: 



pledge which the United States had given at the 
time of the Spanish war, by leaving the island to its 
people. By wise counsels he aided the new govern- 
ment from time to time. Finally, when it was beset 
by armed revolutionists, and it appealed to him to 
intervene, he patiently tried to restore peace in the 
island. He sent two representatives to Havana in 
the effort to persuade the Cubans to get together and 
save their republic. It was only after every peaceful 
endeavor had failed that he would consent to hoist 
the American flag and again assume control of the 
island. 

Toward all the neighboring republics of the new 
world in general he has borne himself as a kindly 
neighbor. He sent his able Secretary of State, Elihu 
Root, on a long official tour of South America, a 
courtesy more marked than any we had ever shown 
the countries of that continent. On occasion, it is 
true, President Roosevelt has let them see his "big 
stick," but no President has given them a better 
assurance of the honest good-will of the great republic 
of the North. 

Everywhere he has stood for "the peace of jus- 
tice." The neutrality of China in the war between 

3*9 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



Russia and Japan was secured by a note which the 
President addressed to the powers. He led the way 
to the peaceful settlement of the troublesome Alaskan 
boundary dispute, and it was he who started the 
movement for the second conference of the nations 
at The Hague. 

By unanimous assent the Nobel prize came to him 
in 1906, as a recognition of his services to the cause 
of peace, and it was characteristic of him to employ 
the money as the foundation for a permanent fund 
to be devoted to the promotion of "a righteous in- 
dustrial peace" between labor and capital. Baron 
D'Estournelles de Constant, the eminent French 
advocate of arbitration, only voiced a universal senti- 
ment when he paid this tribute to President Roose- 
velt: "He is the true statesman of the twentieth 
century and, as such, deserves well of his country 
and of all parts of the globe." 



320 



INDEX 



Astor, William Waldorf, defeated for 
Congress, 41. 

Blaine, James G., his nomination for 
President opposed by Mr. Roosevelt, 
50; his defeat, 51; objects to Mr. 
Roosevelt as Assistant Secretary of 
State, 83. 

Bullock, Archibald, great-grandfather 
of the President, governor of Geor- 
gia. 5- 

Bulloch, Irvine Stephens, fires the last 
gun from the Alabama, 7. 

Bulloch, James Dunwoody, Confederate 
Commissioner, 6. 

Burroughs, John, visits the Yellowstone 
with President Roosevelt, 301. 

Cleveland, Grover, elected Governor, 
43; vetoes five-cent-fare bill, 45; 
elected President, 51; forecasts 
Roosevelt's future, 190; Roosevelt's 
tribute, 191. 

Constant, Baron D' Estournelles de, his 
estimate of President Roosevelt, 320. 

Corporations, denunciation by Mr. 
Roosevelt of the New York Elevated 
Railway Co., 46; opposition of cor- 
porations to Governor Roosevelt's 
Franchise Bill, 158 ; plans of corpo- 
rations to " shelve " Roosevelt in the 
vice-presidency, 159 ; publicity for 
corporations advocated by President 
Roosevelt, 208; the great railway 
merger broken up by President 
Roosevelt, 208 ; intervention by 
President Roosevelt in the big coal 
strike, 210; Railway Rate Regula- 
tion Bill passed, 213; Meat Inspec- 
tion Bill passed, 214; Standard Oil 
Company prosecuted by the Roose- 
velt administration, 214. 

Y 1 



Cortclyou, George B., Secretary to 
President Roosevelt and promoted 
to the cabinet, 175; in accident with 
President Roosevelt, 193. 

Crane, Winthrop Murray, in accident 
with President Roosevelt, 193. 

Czar, The, of Russia, appealed to for 
peace by President Roosevelt, 224 ; 
congratulates President Roosevelt, 

3"- 
Dewey, George, receives orders from 

Assistant Secretary Roosevelt, 109. 
Edward VII, tribute to President 

Roosevelt, 311. 
Hanna, Marcus A., relations with 

President Roosevelt, 176 ; death, 

173- 

Harrison, Benjamin, forecasts Roose- 
velt's future, 189. 

Hart, Albert Bushnell, forecasts Roose- 
velt's future, 188. 

Hay, John, Secretary of State, 174; 
tribute to President Roosevelt, 218. 

Hitchcock, Ethan A., Secretary of the 
Interior, 175. 

Knox, Philander C, Attorney-General, 

175- 

Labor, Mr. Roosevelt's warning against 
violence, 94; President Roosevelt 
refuses to discriminate against a 
non-union man, 185; a "square 
deal" for unions promised by Presi- 
dent Roosevelt, 204 ; intervention 
by President Roosevelt in the big 
coal strike, 210. 

Lincoln, Abraham, approves Soldiers' 
Savings Bill presented by Theodore 
Roosevelt, the elder, 8. 

Loeb, Wm., Jr., secretary to the Presi- 
dent, 168; President's tribute, 251. 



INDEX 



Long, John D., praises work of Assist- 
ant Secretary Roosevelt, hi. 

Longworth, Alice Lee Roosevelt, daugh- 
ter of the President, christens the 
Kaiser's yacht, 281 ; abandons plan 
to attend King Edward's coronation, 
282 ; journey to the Philippines, 
282; a White House bride, 282. 

McKinley, William, requests Mr. 
Roosevelt's advice on the eve of the 
Spanish War, no; death, 168. 

Mikado, The, of Japan, tribute to Presi- 
dent Roosevelt, 311. 

Mitchell, John, offers to arbitrate in 
coal strike, 211. 

Moody, William H., cited by the 
President as an example for college 
athletes, 294. 

Mores, Marquis de, challenges Mr. 
Roosevelt to a duel, 72. 

Morley, John, tribute to President 
Roosevelt, 314. 

Piatt, Thomas C, acquiesces in Mr. 
Roosevelt's appointment in Navy 
Department, 106 ; offers Mr. Roose- 
velt nomination for Governor of New 
York, 152. 

Pope, The, receives embassy from 
President Roosevelt, 219. 

Reed, Thomas B., forecasts Roosevelt's 
future, 191. 

Roosevelt, Alice Hathaway Lee, wife of 
Theodore Roosevelt, marriage, 32; 
death, 61. 

Roosevelt, Edith Kermit Carow, wife 
of Theodore Roosevelt, marriage, 80 ; 
accompanies the President to Pan- 
ama, 234 ; as a hostess in the White 
House, 265 ; as a neighbor at Oyster 
Bay, 275. 

Roosevelt Hospital, New York, founding 
of, 10. 

Roosevelt, Martha Bulloch, mother of 
the President, marriage, 4; death, 
61. 

Roosevelt, Theodore, father of the Presi- 
dent, marriage with Miss Martha 



Bulloch, 4 ; shadow cast on his home 
by the Civil War, 5 ; working for the 
Union, 8; giving his life toothers, 9; 
his son's tribute to him, n; rejected 
by the bosses for the Collectorship 
of the Port of New York, n; death, 
12. 
Roosevelt, Theodore, birth and ancestry, 
1-12; tribute to his Confederate 
uncles, 7; tribute to his father, n; 
boyhood struggles with ill-health, 15 ; 
his studies interrupted, 17; his 
standing in public school, 17; early 
journeys to Europe, 18 ; student days 
in Dresden, 18 ; enters Harvard, 21 ; 
college athletics, 23 ; Sunday school 
teacher, 25 ; life in the Maine woods, 
27; his rank at Harvard, 29; gradu- 
ates, 29 ; marries Alice Hathaway Lee, 
32 ; undertakes to carry on his father's 
philanthropic work, 32; his first 
literary production, " The Naval 
History of the War of 1812," 33; 
gives up his ambition to become a 
teacher of natural history, 35; studies 
law, 35 ; enters politics, 37 ; elected 
to the Legislature, 41 ; youngest 
member of the Assembly, 42; nomi- 
nated for Speaker, 43 ; his first lesson 
in politics, 45; supports Governor 
Cleveland's veto, 45 ; secures Tene- 
ment House Law, 46 ; defeated for 
Speaker, 46 ; investigating New York 
City, 47 ; Captain in the militia, 47 ; 
Chairman of New York Delegation 
in National Convention of 1884, 49; 
advocates election of negro Chair- 
man, 50; opposes Blaine's nomina- 
tion but accepts result, 50 ; beginning 
of his Wild West experiences, 53; 
hunting the buffalo, 54; buys a 
Dakota ranch, 59 ; death of wife and 
mother, 61; ranch life, 61 ; knocking 
down a "bad man," 70; teaching 
Marquis de Mores a new code of 
honor, 72; capturing horse thieves, 
74; Fourth of July orator on the 



322 



INDEX 



frontier, 75 ; writing the life of Ben- 
ton, 78 ; beginning his "Winning of 
the West," 78 ; candidate for Mayor 
of New York, 79; marries Edith 
Kermit Carow, 80; stumping for 
General Harrison, 83 ; appointed on 
Civil Service Commission, 83; his 
work for Civil Service Reform, 84; 
President of the New York Police 
Board, 87 ; rooting out graft in the 
force, 91 ; midnight inspections, 93; 
warning strikers against disorder, 
94; closing saloons on Sunday, 95 ; 
reviewing an anti-Roosevelt proces- 
sion, 97 ; tearing down unfit tenement 
houses, 100; the "square deal" for 
a Jew baiter, 100 ; assistant Secretary 
of the Navy, 105; reforming system 
of promotion, 107 ; increasing the 
target practice, 108 ; preparing for 
the Spanish War, 109; orders to 
Dewey, 109; urges President Mc- 
Kinley and Cabinet to stop Cervera's 
fleet, no ; buying vessels for the war, 
in; organizing the Rough Riders, 
114; leaving San Antonio, 124; 
embarking at Tampa, 127 ; the fight 
at Las Guasimas, 130; visiting the 
wounded in the field hospital, 132; 
takes command, 136; the battle of 
San Juan, 137 ; many narrow escapes, 
141 ; in the fever-stricken camp, 143 ; 
the Roosevelt " round robin," 145; 
landing at Montauk Point, 147; 
the Rough Riders mustered out, 149 ; 
offered nomination for Governor of 
New York by Senator Piatt, 152; 
elected Governor, 154 ; gaining 
the mastery at Albany, 157; putting 
through the Public Franchise Bill, 
158 ; refuses nomination for Vice- 
President, 159 ; delegate to National 
Convention of 1900, 160; nominated 
for Vice-President, 161 ; an extended 
speaking tour, 162; elected Vice- 
President, 162; hastens to Buffalo 
when President McKinley is shot but 



is reassured and leaves city, 165; 
summoned to Buffalo from the Adi- 
rondacks, 166; death of President 
McKinley, 168 ; sworn in as President, 
170; pledges himself to continue the 
McKinley policies, 170; retains the 
McKinley cabinet, 173 ; relations 
with Senator Hanna, 176; the 
youngest President, 178 ; longest 
lineage of any President since 
Washington, 179; the most thor- 
oughly national man ever in the 
White House, 180; sketches his 
own broadening development, 181; 
asks Booker T. Washington to 
dinner, 184; refuses to discriminate 
against non-union labor, 185; up- 
rooting corruption in Post Office 
Department, 185; his future foretold 
by famous men, 188; travels 50,000 
miles in four years to arouse public 
opinion, 192; narrow escape in 
Massachusetts, 193; honors Bill 
Sewall, 195 ; greets old slaves of his 
mother's family, 197 ; successful fight 
for Cuban reciprocity, 199; bold 
announcement of candidacy for elec- 
tion, 201; nominated and elected, 
202 ; announces determination not to 
accept another term, 202 ; strains the 
third term tradition, 203; promises a 
" square deal " for labor unions and 
corporations, 204 ; successfully pros- 
ecutes the great railway merger, 208 ; 
intervenes in the big coal strike, 210; 
secures passage of Railway Rate 
Regulation Bill, 213; secures passage 
of Meat Inspection Bill, 214 ; secures 
passage of Pure Food Law, 214 ; pros- 
ecuting the Standard Oil Company, 
214; locking up United States sena- 
tors, 214; unites both parties in his 
support, 215; the "big stick," 216; 
John Hay's tribute, 218 ; Elihu Root's 
tribute, 218; embassy to the Pope, 
219 ; forwarding the Jewish petition 
to Russia, 220; submitting the first 



3 2 3 



INDEX 



case to The Hague Peace Tribunal, 
221 ; securing arbitration between 
Germany, Great Britain, and Venez- 
uela, 221 ; arranging peace between 
Russia and Japan, 222 ; " the strenu- 
ous life," 225; habits, 226; capacity 
for labor, 227; personal description, 
227 ; as a pedestrian, 228 ; as a horse- 
man, 229; " the tennis cabinet," 230; 
learning jiu jitsu, 230; as a reader, 
231 ; breaking the rule against Pres- 
idents leaving the country, 233; 
inspecting the Panama Canal, 234; 
receiving callers at the White House, 
239 ; his weakness for Rough Riders, 
243; his love of loyalty, 245; enter- 
taining Bill Sewall at the White 
House, 246; appointing Sewall to 
office, 247 ; despatching business, 
248 ; his daily mail, 251 ; his study 
of birds in the White House grounds, 
253 ; his precautions for self-protec- 
tion, 257; remodelling the White 
House, 258 ; breaking White House 
traditions, 262; his Virginia retreat, 
264; as a church-goer, 267; his 
tribute to the American farmer, 268 ; 
his life at Oyster Bay, 269 ; as a con- 
versationalist, 273 ; with his children, 
277; his ideals for boys and girls, 
280; his comradery with his sons, 
282; some strange pets at Oyster 
Bay, 285 ; sending his sons to public 
school, 291; as a sportsman, 293; 
his view of prize fighting, 295; his 
remorse over his first deer, 296 ; his 
standards of sportsmanship, 297; 
his visit to Yellowstone Park, 301 ; his 
hunting expeditions, 303; his early 
battle with a big grizzly, 308 ; foreign 
tributes, 311; meeting the Japanese 
crisis, 315; his effort to preserve the 
Cuban government, 318 ; sends Sec- 
retary Root to South America, 319; 
secures neutrality of China, 319; 



initiates the second conference at 
The Hague, 320; receives the Nobel 
peace prize, 320. 
Root, Eliku, announces death of Presi- 
dent McKinley to Vice-President 
Roosevelt, 169; Secretary of State, 
175; tribute to President Roosevelt, 
218 ; his mission to South America, 

319- 

Rough Riders, The, organize, 114; 
leaving San Antonio, 124; embark- 
ing at Tampa, 127 ; the fight at Las 
Guasimas, 130; the battle of San 
Juan, 137; in the fever-stricken 
camp, 143 ; the Roosevelt " round 
robin," 145 ; landing at Montauk 
Point, 147; mustered out, 149. 

Sewall, William W., Mr. Roosevelt's 
guide in Maine, 27; joins him on 
Dakota ranch, 62; made guest of 
honor by the President at Bangor, 
Maine, 195 ; entertained at the 
White House, 246; appointed to 
office, 247. 

Sternberg, Baron Speck von, forecasts 
Roosevelt's future, 188. 

Taft, William H., called to the Roose- 
velt cabinet, 175. 

The Hague Peace Tribunal, receives 
its first case through President Roose- 
velt, 221 ; he also initiates second 
conference of the nations, 320. 

Washington, Booker T., dines with 
President Roosevelt, 184. 

William II, congratulates President 
Roosevelt, 311; sends special em- 
bassy to the United States, 315. 

Wilson, James, Secretary of Agricul- 
ture, 175. 

White, Andrew D., forecasts Roose- 
velt's future, 188. 

Wood, Leonard, his appointment as 
Colonel of the Rough Riders recom- 
mended by Mr. Roosevelt, 115; pro- 
moted to brigade command, 136. 



3 2 4 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

The Man of the People 
By NORMAN HAPGOOD 

Illustrated with portraits, facsimiles, etc. 
Library Edition, half leather, $2.00 
School Library Edition, 50 cents net 

It is perhaps the best life of Lincoln which has yet been 
done for readers who have no time for extended reading. 
Without sacrificing the truth of history or neglecting any 
really needful details, he has made his story of Lincoln 
something far above the dry chronicle of events and the 
unprofitable repetition of personal gossip. 

He has put himself in the reader's place and realized what 
the reader wants to know, to understand what manner of 
man Lincoln was, and what were the times in which he 
lived and the problem which he had to solve. 

COMMENTS OF THE PRESS 

" Perhaps the best short biography that has yet appeared." — Review 
of Reviews. 

"The book has a distinctive interest and a special value." — The New 
York Herald. 

"Strong, clear, picturesque." — Independent. 

" Mr. Hapgood is not depicting a mere model hero, but a living, 
awkward, fallible, steadfast, noble man." — Chicago Tribune. 

" A picture of Lincoln as he was." — Mail and Express. 

Justin McCarthy, the venerable Irish leader, wrote a few weeks ago 
of Norman Hapgood's work : — 

" Its depth, its clearness, its comprehensiveness, seem to me to mark 
the author as a genuine critic of the broader and the higher school, of that 
school which had for its noblest professor in modern times the great 
German scholar, dramatist, and teacher, Lessing." 

" A Life of Lincoln that has never been surpassed in vividness, com- 
pactness, and lifelike reality." — Chicago Tribune. 



PUBLISHED BY 

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

SIXTY-FOUR AND SIXTY-SIX FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK 



GEORGE WASHINGTON 

By NORMAN HAPGOOD 

Hal} leather, $1.75 net; by mail, $i.go 
Standard School Library Edition, 50 cents net 



" A vigorous yet careful portrait." — New York Evening Post. 

" A plain, unvarnished biography of the most famous of Americans." — 
The Springfield Republican. 

" It is a good, healthy, virile study of the man. ... It should be 
widely read, that certain false impressions may be corrected. It shows us 
more of the man whom his mother and wife and neighbors and associates 
knew and loved and were devoted to." — The Richmond Times. 

"The book is a monument to Mr. Hapgood's ability and patriotism, 
and one of the best biographies of Washington that has ever been pub- 
lished." — The New Orleans Picayune. 

" A careful and conscientious study of the greatest character in Ameri- 
can history, drawn with a reverent pencil that does full justice to his 
greatness." — The New York Herald. 

" Mr. Hapgood may have done more brilliant or more entertaining 
work in other fields, but we doubt if any of his previous work will take its 
place in permanent literature so certainly as this study of Washington." — 
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 

"The student and the reader of history will find Mr. Hapgood's vol- 
ume valuable, enjoyable, and significant." — Boston Herald. 

" Mr. Norman Hapgood's ' George Washington ' is characterized by 
an unusual amount of judicious quotation, and also by many pages of 
graphic narrative and description. It has not been customary heretofore, 
in brief biographies of eminent men, to put the reader so closely in touch 
with the sources of history. In this case, however, the method adopted 
by Mr. Hapgood has not only greatly enhanced the historical value of his 
work, but has at the same time added to its intrinsic interest." — The 
Review of Reviews. 

PUBLISHED BY 

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

SIXTY-FOUR AND SIXTY-SIX FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK 



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